Pan Never Fails, and Perhaps Neither does Love
by OriginalSluggo
Summary: Arabella is a mysterious girl from the enchanted forest, born with powers. Of course she could overpower Pan. Overpowering Peter was never the problem. It was outsmarting him. Something everyone struggled with. You know what they say, Pan never fails. In this case, she's going to try and let everyone win. Just once.
1. I told you I'd be back

**Authors note: My pen name is Marty, I am indeed a girl. This chapter will leave you with ****_a lot _****of questions, I'm sure. But this is a testing chapter. I will continue the story, as I have it planned in my head from start to finish and I am currently putting it to paper.** _**Please comment or PM me with your thoughts or complaints. I will do my best to make sure the story goes well and will change what I need so that it goes to plan.**_

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_**ATTENTION: BOLD IS PAST, NORMAL WRITING IS PRESENT. ITALICS IS THOUGHT.**_

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_**"Arabella's got some interstellar-gator skin boots,**_

_**And a helter skelter 'round her little finger and I ride it endlessly." **_

_**-Arctic Monkeys**_

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_Silence._

That was something Arabella had long since gotten used to. Of course before the silence there was something much worse.

_Screaming._

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**_"Arabella!" Zoso's voice shook the house as he slammed the front door shut, "Bella! BellaDonna where are you?!"_**

**_The grown man began tearing apart the small cottage that was he and his daughters home for the past year or so. The most important thing to him, his daughter, was in danger._**

**_"Bella!" He screamed once more, flipping over their two man dining table and checking underneath it, "Oh sweetheart, where are you?!"_**

**_"Papa?" A small voice cracked from the archway of the kitchen from their small living quarters._**

**_"Arabella," Zoso exhaled in relief as he took a few strides to reach his daughter, falling to his knees and pulling her into a tight embrace, "I thought I had lost you."_**

**_Little Arabella, about 10 years old, wrapped her small arms around her fathers neck, "Papa... Papa I'm so scared.. What is going to happen?"_**

**_Zoso pulled away, holding his daughters shoulders firmly in his hands. As he took a look at her red and watering eyes his heart broke knowing what he had to do._**

**_"Bella.. We have to leave."_**

**_"N-No, Papa!" Arabella choked, "Please, I'm sorry! We-we don't have to leave! I didn't mean to do it!"_**

**_Zoso pulled his daughter in once more for an embrace. He rested his chin on her shoulder and sighed as he stared at the wall behind her. The hollers of an angry crowd grew louder from outside of the house and the light of their torches started to glow brighter. They were getting close. _**

**_"Oh BellaDonna, it's too late," He whispered, pulling her into a tighter embrace, "And we don't have much time."_**

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Arabella stepped out of the ocean and onto the sand that was still wet from tide. Frustration was etched across her face as she pulled her hair over her shoulder and began to ring out the collected water from her swim. She sighed in anger and wiped the water droplets from her clothing. Seeing that most of her clothes were leather, it shouldn't take her too long to dry as long as the water continued to drain off of her.

Taking a few more steps toward the forest that connected to the beach, Arabella stopped to take in a sight she thought she'd never see again.

"I told you to never return," a sinister voice said from behind her. She didn't have to turn to know who it was, the tone was all to familiar.

"You can't overpower me," Arabella stated, keeping her eyes forward And the frustration in her expression. She refused to turn around.

"No, maybe not," the voice from behind said, and he then took a few steps forward to now stand next to her, both of their eyes locked on the Forest, "But I can out smart you."

"We'll see about that," Arabella smirked, turning her head and staring daggers into the side of the boys face, "You see, I've planned far ahead. I know your game, and mine is better."

Now it was Peter's turn to smirk, "Oh you're right,we'll see about that. Do you remember what I told you all those years ago?"

"Pan never fails," she exhaled, turning her attention back to the forest.

"Best not forget that, BellaDonna."

And then he was gone.

_"Fuck you Peter," she thought._

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_**Alright well there you have it, the first chapter. Sorry if I've made any grammatical mistakes, I'm writing this on my phone as I have no computer. I hope you'll forgive me.**_

_**-Marty**_


	2. The Dark One

**Authors note: Yes, I know I'm posting this chapter soon. I don't think there will be a certain time I will post. There will be a week you may get 5 chapters, and a week you get none. Sorry :C Enjoy the story regardless!**

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**_**ATTENTION: BOLD IS PAST, NORMAL WRITING IS PRESENT. ITALICS IS THOUGHT**_**

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_**"Papa! Where are we going?" Arabella yelled to her Father.**_

_**Their hands were clasped together as they ran through the forest behind the cottage. The pair were doing the best they could to put as much distance between them and the angry mob of soldiers as they could. At the moment they were only a short ways apart, burning down their home.**_

_**"Away, Bella. We're going far away!" He yelled back, doing his best to keep a pass that the small girl could keep up with.**_

_**A while later of running they found themselves far from the ashes of the cottage they once called home. The two stopped to catch their breath; Zoso regaining himself with his hands on his knees and Arabella sinking to the forest floor.**_

_**"Papa, we could have stopped them," Arabella mentioned, moments after she caught her breath and regained herself by standing back up.**_

_**"No, Bella, we couldn't ha-"**_

_**"Yes! We could have! We have POWER, Father!" She protested.**_

_**Zoso stepped toward his daughter and grabbed her firmly, "And look where that has gotten us! If we have ANY hopes of finding you a normal life we HAVE to stay low-key! People start a rumor of a ten year old girl burning down a shop and they will be called a liar or tormented for letting a little girl get away. NO ONE will admit to that. Leave an entire small army dead around a cottage they KNOW we live in, and we will be hunted!"**_

_**"We will always be hunted, Papa. You're the dark one."**_

_**The weight of her words slapped Zoso in the face. He was failing her daughter at being a father no matter how much he tried. He would never be able to keep her safe unless they locked themselves into a secluded town. But how was that a fair life for a little girl? Or even anyone for that matter.**_

_**The girl could not control her powers and they were only getting stronger. Just hours before her emotions had gotten the best of her and she had set a shop ablaze with her mind. The fires had almost taken the entire market down with it.**_

_**"How did this happen, Bella?" Zoso asked, his tone softening, "I thought we worked on the outbursts?"**_

_**Arabella let the tears fall from her face, "I heard them trying to plan to destroy you, Father."**_

_**Zoso's expression softened as he tilted his head to his daughter. "Bella, no one is going to hurt me. No one has the dagg-"**_

_**Before he could finish his sentence he cut himself short, remembering the dagger was indeed behind them somewhere within the ashes of their home.**_

_**"Bella run. Run from me. Don't look back. I'm going back to get the dagger, if I fail don't ever stop running. They will order me to kill you."**_

_**"No, Papa," she began to cry all over again, "Please, I'm sorry-"**_

_**"Bella if I get the dagger, I will find you. I promise."**_

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Arabella now found herself wondering through the forest of Neverland. Of course he knew where she was, he was connected to every fabric of this island. He would do nothing to harm her, that she knew of. He would, however, do everything in his power to stop or delay her plan as long as he could.

She only hoped she concealed her plan well enough to give her a small advantage of wits. There was no doubting Pan was smarter than her by a landslide. One thing she was certain of, he would do everything to keep her from Henry's family, at least.

As the journey continued almost into nightfall, she began to hear faint voices ahead of her. She ventured forward a bit more and concealed herself behind a tree. Ahead of her were Emma, Hook, David and Snow.

_'This is too easy, something is wrong,' _she thought.

There was no way Pan allowed this to happen. Was he distracted? Off his game? Was the almighty Peter Pan slipping?

Arabella attempted to take one more step forward in hopes she would be able to make out the conversation, and instead made a rookie mistake by stepping on a twig. She cursed herself under her breath as the entire group turned toward her direction and drew their weapons.

"Come out!" Emma yelled.

She knew she had to gain their trust if she wanted more hope of her plan succeeding. Going against Pan and the lost boys was one thing, going against Pan, the Lost Boys and the entire Heroes Comity was another. She chose wisely and raised her arms above her head, stepping out of her hiding space to let them see her.

"She's a girl!" Snow exclaimed, shocked, "Who are you?"

"I am Arabella. I'm here to help you."

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**Two chapters, one night. I'd say that's swell progress, even though they aren't all that long. All chapters will be relatively this long, or longer. Anything shorter and you can punch me through the screen.**

**I have about 6 chapters written in my notebook already. I revise as I type them onto here for me to post. (Add some fluff, throw in more detail, mark down forgotten information that needs to be leaked, etc etc.)**

**Anyway, review and lemme know what you think! I can't wait until you all get to about chapter 4 (when it's posted). I'm most excited for the excitement to start. :3**

**Anyway, I'm babbling. Toodles!**

**-Marty**


	3. The Demon

**Authors note: Alright I'm up to 8 chapters on paper. I'm very glad I'm writing it well ahead as I am encountering problems with the plan of the story. Nothing that has effected you yet, but I've had to change my course slightly. Let me know if something seems out of place. (Please keep in mind the storyline for Once Upon a Time is over a span of hundreds of years. For the most part, Neverland and the Dark Ones powers has made the lifespan of characters possible. For instance, Bealfire -Neal- is hundreds of years old because of neverland.) My planning may not be perfect, but for the sake of the story, humor me. Sorry for ranting, enjoy the story, loves!**

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_**I've decided to not only notify, but also keep the change of font for when the timeline switches from past to present.**_

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_**PAST:**_

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_**For two days Arabella exiled herself to the woods after the capture of her Father. She had intentions of planning to save him the first night but accidentally ate berries that had made her sick to her stomach. They were keeping her Father in a cage by their fires as if he were an animal. The only time the leader let him out was when they wanted him to do their bidding, go figure. At night when they are their dinners they would boast and cheer about their new 'weapon'.**_

_**They called her Father a 'weapon'.**_

_**The entire situation made her so angry and she was determined to get her Father back. From the edge of the woods she watched the men parade around, enjoying their beer and stew. No men guarded her Father, they didn't need to. He was in their complete control.**_

_**After they made their escape, Arabella decided her best plan was to confront her father. She would tell him she was going to save him so that he could be prepared to escape.**_

_**Rushing over to the cage she grabbed a hold of the bamboo-like bars. "Papa!" She whispered.**_

_**Zoso blinked his eyes open and looked to his daughter in disbelief, "Bella? Bella what are you doing? Why didn't you listen? Go!" He whispered back, sternly.**_

_**"I'm going to get you out, Papa, just be ready. Be ready and we can-"**_

_**"Well, well, well. I would LOVE to see how you plan on getting out.. When I still have this," the leader smirked, walking over to the pair as he waved the dagger.**_

_**Zoso exhaled and hung his head, "You should have listened to me, BellaDonna."**_

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_**(Still the past, just a few days later.)**_

_**Arabella found herself standing at the foot of a small row boat. She was tied at the hands, legs, ankles and waist. A large rope knot was shoved into her mouth and tied around her head. Surrounding her were the soldiers who had captured her Father. The leader stood next to her, bearing the dagger as if it were a trophy.**_

_**He had been going on for almost an hour about how fate was on his side. How they controlled the dark one and that they would rid the world of the demon spawn that he had brought into. The first time her Father started protesting and begging for her life was the last, as he was commanded into silence.**_

_**"Any last words, Demon?" the leader questioned, cutting the rope from her mouth.**_

_**"I can get out of this! I can, and I will!" She screamed, throwing a tantrum fit for the ten year old she was.**_

_**The statement had only made the leader laugh, "If you break yourself free I will kill your father, absorb his powers and then kill you myself."**_

_**Arabella spat at him, "If you wanted to do that, you would have already."**_

_**The man wiped the spit from his face angrily and slapped Arabella with the same hand, smearing her own liquids on her face, "Why would anyone choose to suffer that? We are human. He is unholy."**_

_**Arabella hesitated before the tears returned, "Papa.." she breathed, "We'll be okay, Papa. I promise. I believe!"**_

_**"Oh shut it," the captain snapped before ordering her to be towed out and thrown in to her demise at the bottom of the lake.**_

_**Darkness engulfed her.**_

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_**Sorry for so much of the past. The next few chapters will be like this, but your favorite man is coming soon. :)**_

_**After we are caught up enough, we will go back to Arabella's interaction with the group and continue focusing more on present, with only bits of the past.**_

_**I'm more fond of story, so I want this to be enjoyable. Bear with me for all the flash backs (and the dramatics of a ten year old) and I promise you this story will be great.**_

_**Also, I seem to be making up for short chapters by updating almost twice daily. This is the third chapter in 24 hours.**_

_**Please review!**_


	4. Just One Big Plan

**Authors note: Alright I feel pretty bad for writing three chapters and having minimal Pan. So I've got some Pan here for you. :) A bit of past and present of Arabella in this one.**

**Enjoy!**

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**Past!**

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**Drowning was terrifying. It was painful and dark. Arabella couldn't even tell if she was still crying, everything had gone numb. Was her heart even still beating? All movements of her body had stopped and the only thing that kept her moving was the tides beneath the water. Her head hung almost lifelessly. And then there was pressure on her shoulder. Perhaps a hand? Surely not.**

**No one was coming to save her. She had to die to save her Father.**

**Darkness consumed entirely as her mind slipped into an almost permanent halt.**

**And yet, eventually her eyes opened once more. A crisp sunset was filling the sky and it painted the trees around her the colors of cherries and peaches. She was laying on her back in what flet like sand, surely she wasnt at the lake she was almost killed at.**

**"You're finally awake," a voice said as a blurred person came into her view, appearing to be bending over to look at her.**

**"Pa.. Papa?" Arabella choked, her throat still dry and hoarse with lake water.**

**Laughter ensued from now who she realized to be an older boy, "Most people just call me Peter Pan."**

**Arabella focused in on the boy in time to see a smirk spread across his face, "Welcome to Neverland."**

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**More past!**

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**A year had passed, perhaps two? Pan and the Lost Boys had done a wonderful job of convincing our young Arabella to forget the Enchanted Forest as her home. Yet when kind persuasion and manipulation failed to help her forget her Father punishments ensued. The only time Arabella encountered Peter's bad side was when she spoke of her Father.**

**"We are your family now," he would scorn, "Neverland is your home."**

**Torture excluded anything from cages to ringed fights with more experienced older boys. This lead to many breakdowns. Many fires and many injuries; to both the Lost Boys and her. Though Neverland prevented her from aging, it did not stop the raging fire of magic from coursing through her veins. Peter realized this, but having her accept Neverland and all inhabitants was apart of his big plan that she was still not aware of. Even so, she has yet to hear the music of his pipes.**

**Felix and Peter stoof by the doused fire of the camp, Arabella and the lost boys were all sleeping in their tents and tree houses.**

**"We were lucky for her unfortunate events," Felix stated.**

**Peter smirked, turning to face Felix as he raised his hands in a confident manor, "That wasn't luck," he smirked, lowering one hand into a fist as he pointed the other toward Arabella's tent, "It was all planned."**

**"Planned? How?"**

**Peter laughed, "You think anyone in that town had the guts to speak of her Father's demise in front of her, knowing what it would cause?"**

**"You-"**

**"Planted a Lost Boy in the market. Do you also assume that Zoso would have been stupid enough to not have his dagger on him? I assure you, he _had _it on him."**

**"How did you get it?"**

**"Don't doubt my or my shadows powers. I took it from him. I gave that dagger to the leader of their army in exchange for one thing, her. He would get the Dark One's powers and rid the town of the fear of her all at once. All he had to do was give me an opportunity to take her and make it look like she would never return," Peter explained, his smirk twisting evily.**

**Felix took a moment to process everything before his face twisted to a smile as well, "Just one more question. I know she has powers, but so do you. Why is she so important? Why is she able to break the one rule of the Lost Boys, that you have to be.. Well, a boy?"**

**"She's more than she seems, and one day she might be a threat to the plan. She needs to be apart of it, and on our side. That is why she is here, right now it's a game of persuasion."**

**Its just a shame Pan can't see the future.**

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Present!

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"How are we supposed to believe you're really here to help?" Hook questioned, almost laughing, "Given your past, I'd be more motivated to believe this is a trick."

"You know her?" Emma questioned.

"Aye, I do. Do does all of Neverland," he sighed.

Arabella shifted uncomfortably on her feet, her hands were still raised above her head in defense and submission. She hoped this conversation would not go sour, she didn't want to have to use magic or hurt them to get away. She would have to go forth with her plan, no matter what. But she needed them, she needed someone on her side. Pan was more manageable with help. Against him and this Heroes Commity would prove to me more difficult than she had time for.

Arabella lowered her hands and tried to chose her next words carefully, but sternly, "Trust me or not, you need me."

David tched, "We have all we need."

"Oh really?" Arabella questioned sarcastically, tilting her head a furrowing her brows, "Do you know where Henry is? Pan's intentions? What to do, how to get out? If I was going to hurt you, I would have killed you before you noticed me."

The last statement only made the group tense and grip their weapons harder. Hook, on the other hand, looked as if e was contemplating on saying something.

"She's right," he finally spoke up.

"What? You're standing up for her?" Emma exclaimed.

"She's a lot more powerful than she looks. Older too. Pan kept her here for so long.." he drifted.

"Wait, were you here with Neal?" Emma questioned.

"Neal?" Arabella asked, confused.

"Bealfire," Hook confirmed.

Arabella's eyes widened, "Bealfire? He's alive? He survived escaping?"

"Yeah, and now he's back here. Pan has him caged in some cave and we're going to save him. Maybe he will tell us just how trustworthy you really are," Snow said, offering her idea As she looked over to the vines hanging from the trees.

The look told Arabella one thing, it would be another time in her life she would be tied as a prisoner. Only this time it would be willingly so she could gain trust. How much Pan was rubbing off on her by these devious acts to get yourself further almost made herself sick to her stomach.

At least hers were for good reasons.

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A/N: Remember, I'm writing on my phone. Forgive me for autocorrects or mistakes, but please let me know of them so I can fix them!

Favorite and review!

If you like my writing, feel free to PM me with requests! I'll see what I can do.

-Marty


	5. Lie After Lie, from All

**A/N: I am updatig this story so often in surprising myself. On Monday I plan to replace my laptop, and hopefully updating will be a lot easier than writing it on my phone.**

**There would be less grammatical mistakes as well. (Then again, it's not like I'm an English major. This is more of a hobby I enjoy.)**

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Present!

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Arabella had been securely restrained as Hook held the other end of the ropes she was tied to.

"What cave are they keeping Bealfire in?" She questioned.

"Echo Caves," Hook breathed.

Arabella halted to a stop, causing Hook to stumble before stopping and turning around to see what had happened. The rest of the group didn't seem to have noticed, as they kept walking.

"No," she said bluntly, "You know damn well why Peter has him there."

"I know, but we don't have much of a choice," he said, raising one hand to hip level in a 'What are we gonna do' manor.

"No choice? There is a choice! Jeopardize Henry or save Bealfire. And let me tell you, one of those choices is going to give Peter exactly what he needs, more time," she snapped.

"Emma needs to save him. Theyre all family."

"Emma? All family? The only family Bealfire has are the Darlings," Arabella breathes angrily.

Hook grabbed her chin roughly, "The only thing you need to worry about is that Henry _is Bealfires son."_

"Henry is.. Emmas son," Arabella stated questionably, furrowing her brow while she wondered if she had gotten wrong information. There was no way out of that entire world without magic that Emma and Bealfire had come across each other.

"Well, Emma being his Mother would explain his birth, now wouldn't it?" Hook sarcastically responded.

Would this bit of information change everything? Arabella's face pinched together in frustration and contemplation.

"You look like you want to change your mind," Hook stated, "I would sure hope not. I would hate to have to help them kill you," he smirked.

Arabella rolled her eyes, "You don't understand," she sighed.

"Perhaps I will after this visit to Echo Caves and they talk to Bealfire, eh?"

With every step forward she took, she contemplated releasing herself and going about her mission solo. She knew she was walking right into what Peter wanted her too. Perhaps he did plan even further than she did.

Perhaps Pan really never does fail.

When they expose their secrets at Echo Caves, there is a fifty fifty chance that Pan will piece everything together.

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**PAST!**

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"**Peter I'm sorry!" Ten year old Arabella cried, snot draining from her nose.**

**"_What _have I told you?" Peter scorned, bringing his face close to hers through the bars of the cage she was being contained in.**

**Arabella sniffed, unable to stop herself from choking on her own air every few moments as she tried to calm herself from this borderline tantrum. She knew if she caused another accident Pan would punish her further. At the moment she didn't know what to say or do. Pan was first and foremost upset with her for expressing her longing to be reunited with her Father. Secondly, she had apologized. Something all of the Lost Boys were punished for.**

**"_Who is your family?" Pan _ sneered, grabbing ahold of the bars with both of his hands._  
_**

**"Y-you and the Lost Boys," she choked, taking a quick and deep inhale.**

**"WHERE is your HOME?"**

**"N-Neverland."**

**"You HAVE no Father," Pan hissed.**

**"I do! My Papa is back in the Enchanted Forest!"**

**Wrong answer.**

**Pan exhaled angrily as a low growl excaped his lips. He grabbed a pointed spear from one of the Lost Boys and aimed it at her as if he was goin to stab her through the cage. Arabella shrieked and raised her hands in a defensive manor. Pan smirked evily before dropping the spear and lowering himself to her level.**

**"You have no Father," he repeated, tilting his head to the side, "He died shortly after you came to Neverland."**

**Arabella's mouth opened and closed as if she was trying to say words that just weren't there. "H-how?" She finally managed to choke out.**

**"A man named Rumpelstiltskin killed him so that he could have his powers," Pan half lied, "Now do you understand? I spared you from the same fate. We want you here. You're our only Lost Girl, our family," he explained, trying to soften his tone and expression, "And we need you on your best behavior for our new arrival."**

**Arabella sniffed. Now would not be the time to react to her Father's death. For as long as she was here she may never have a time for it. Not only would Pan punish her for her feelings, but she could not allow herself to lose control or she would find herself locked in this cage for another day or so. She had already been inside for four. Of course, she didn't want to believe her Father was dead. But, as mean as Pan could be, she didn't believe he would lie to her either.**

**Pan had done too well of a job of manipulating her into complete and utter submission.**

**"W-who?" She asked after a long moment.**

**"His name is Bealfire, and you are going to befriend him."**

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A/N: Favorite and review!? How it it coming along? What do you like, what do you not like?


	6. Is that so?

**A/N: My laptop gets here tomorrow, so I'll update this chapter and write the next one tomorrow night. Hopefully my grammatical mistakes will be reduced greatly considering Microsoft Word will help with corrections. (I know I shouldn't have to rely on it, but hey, I'm not perfect.) Enjoy the chapter!**

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_"When she needs to shelter from reality she takes a dip in my daydreams."_

_-Arctic Monkeys_

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**Past!**

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**Well over a hundred years had past in Neverland. Years Arabella spent with Bealfire, Peter and the Lost Boys. Pan had his visitor, Hook, who he prevented from aging along with the rest of his crew so that he could continue to do his dirty work. (This was never confirmed in the story but keep in mind in the show Neal made the comment he was in Neverland for a "few hundred" years, and Hook was there when he first arrived. The only thing that makes sense as to how Hook is still alive and young is if Pan prevented him from aging the same way he did Michael and John. Also keep in mind of the scene where Pan asks Hook, "Come back and work for me.")**

**Unfortunately, our Arabella had done something in terrible defiance against Pan. She had helped Bealfire escape the Island. Bealfire, who at the time had grown to be family to her, had asked her to come along. She assured him that she had finally come to terms with the fact that there was no one left for her in the Enchanted Forest and Neverland was her home.**

**Reluctantly, Bealfire left anyway. That was days ago, perhaps weeks. Time stood still in Neverland, especially when Pan had you locked in a cage.**

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**Still the past, but days before releasing Bealfire:**

**Arabella was running back to camp, a live fish flopping in her hands, "Peter!" She called, excited, "Peter, look!"**

**When she reached within a foot of him she leaned her head back to see his face and put on a huge grin, "I caught it!" She exclaimed, "I caught it by myself!"**

**"Is that so?" he smirked, squatting down to be at eye level with her, "With or without magic?"**

**"Without!" She chimed, holding the prize that had now stopped flopping around to him, "I caught it for you!"**

**A devilish and all-knowing smirk spread across his face as he accepted the gift and sent her on her way. Pan stood back up in time for Felix to arrive at his side.**

**"The game of persuasion is finished," Pan said.**

**"Why haven't we killed her?" Felix asked, clearly still oblivious to the plan.**

**"I've told you before, shes more than what she seems," Pan explained.**

**"And she will help us?"**

**"Powers like hers could be a threat, or a promise. If she is on our side when my own powers get weakened before i retrieve the heart of the truest believer, she may just be the key to us winning."**

**"Well, if the game of persuasion has ended, what do we do with her now?" Felix asked.**

**"We send her away," Pan said, turning toward the lake that you could see Arabella continuing to fish at.**

**"Are you mad?" Felix asked, contemplating the sanity of his boss more than ever.**

**"No. She needs to be trained. We can't do that. The long time she has spent here was to ensure she would believe that she HAS to return. She's accepted this as her home. Look, I've even gotten a gift," Peter mocked, throwing the dead fish to the ground.**

**"Who will train her?"**

**"You'll see."**

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Present!

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"We're here," Hook announced, keeping a firm grip on the other ends of Arabella's ropes as he stopped at the entrance of Echo Caves.

"What do we do with her?" David asked, pointing at their prisoner.

"As much as the ropes have brought us comfort, they aren't doing much," Hook sighed, turning his head.

"What do you mean? The ropes were so that she couldn't run, and she hasn't been able to," Snow argued.

"If I wanted to get away I would have," Arabella sighed, looking down to see the ropes around her waist, as her hands were tied behind her back.

"I don't understand," David said, furrowing his brow in confusion.

"It doesn't matter right now. We have to get Neal so we can get Henry. Keep her tied and leave her here, we'll come back and get her after we free Neal," Emma ordered, taking the tone of a leader.

They all exchanged glances before looking back to Arabella. Arabella sighed.

"Go save Bealfire- I'm sorry. Go save 'Neal'. Apparently you need him to prove you can trust me, and that's what you need to do. I promise you," Arabella paused, "I will be here when you return."

"Settled. Let's go," Emma said, eager to get inside the cave as she walked on. The others followed.

Arabella sat down on a fallen log close to the entrance. When the others were out of earshot she wiggles uncomfortably in the ropes and contemplated how her companions would feel if they came back and she was free. Deciding it was best not to push them more than her mere presence was already doing, she opted out of freeing her limbs.

"I see you're making friends," a confident voice said from in front of her.

Startled, Arabella jumped and looked up to see the one and only, "Peter," she hissed.

"You really aren't good at this game," he smirked, taking a few steps toward her.

Arabella stood from her log and turned herself sideways in a defensive manor. In a mere second the ropes disappeared from her body.

"Oh. Well what are your new friends going to think now that you're free?" Peter laughed, raising his hands palms up to his waist, "Are you going to tell them of your powers? I feel like, soon, you're going to have to."

Arabella ignored the questions his last statement brought and scorned him, "This isn't going to work, Peter. I am well over your forms of manipulation and they don't work on me anymore. I see right through you now," she gritted through her teeth.

Pan disappeared, only to reappear and in inch from her body, "Is that so?" He questioned, the phrase bringing back memories of the first time she was sweet to Pan. In response to catching her off guard he tilted his head to the side and brought his lips and inch from hers.

Arabella took a breath as Pan exhaled, breathing him in. She shifted under her weight and for a moment she felt completely powerless, holding her breath.

"I didn't think so," he smirked, letting out another breath for her to breath in.

And then he was gone.

"Arabella!" Emma's frantic voice called from the cave.

For a moment Arabella feared Emma had seen, but was proven wrong when no comment was made of it. To prevent suspicion she did her best to snap out of her daze and turned toward Emma.

"What happened to your ropes?" Emma questioned before she had a chance to speak, "Nevermind that. We need you!" Emma interrupted before she had a chance to respond.

Emma gabbed Arabella's arm and begun dragging her to the entrance, "Our secrets only paved the way! We need one more person, one more secret to unlock Neal's cage!"

Arabella ran with her, but suddenly the beginning of Pan's plans revealed itself to her. He was hoping her secret would drive the Heroes from trusting her. That made his comment earlier make sense. He thought admitting her powers would make them worry.

But that wasn't her secret. Her secret would do much, much worse than that.

It would reveal her plan to Peter.

* * *

**Past! Taken place after Pan had already kept Arabella in the cage for almost a week for helping Bealfire escape. (this is pretty much the third part of the flashbacks from the beginning of this chapter.)**

**"Peter, I'm sorry!" Arabella cried, tears flowing from her face and snot collecting at her nose.**

**"You can't change what you've done," Pan said, holding the dreamshade tipped spear in his hand, "You broke just about every rule," he hissed.**

**"Please, please, I'm sorry!" She wailed as he grabbed her arm from between the bars of the cage and pulled it out to expose the skin to himself.**

**"I'll make it up to you!" She screamed as he drew the point closer to her.**

**Peter paused, keeping the point close to her skin, "Youre right," he smirked, "You will."**

**With that he unlocked her cage and took a step back so she could exit. **

**Aftraid of moving, Arabella stayed inside as her emotions did a 180 and flipped to shock and confusion, "W-what? How?"**

**"Leave."**

**"No.. Peter," she exhaled, feeling the tears return.**

**"Leave Neverland and learn to control your powers. Then return here. Return to me and prove your loyalty," he said, giving her a stern look.**

**Arabella weighed the words in her head as if she had a choice, and she didn't, "Where will I go?"**

**"I have that planned," Peter said as his smirk grew wilder with insanity seeing just how obedient she would be even after he almost killed her.**

**As she began to exit the cage on her hands and knees, Peter stepped toward her and lowered to her level, "Where is your home?" He growled.**

**"Neverland. It will always be Neverland."**

* * *

Hello! What do you think, getting pretty edgy isn't it? Gosh I can't wait to get my laptop tomorrow and post the next chapter, heads will turn and eyes will pop out!

Enjoy the reading my loves!

-Marty


	7. Your Biggest, Darkest Secret

**A/N: Well, my laptop is here! It's so much easier to type all of the chapters than it is to try and write them on my phone. Gosh that was so time consuming and irritating. Y'all better feel loved! Anyway, here's the head-turning/eye-popping chapter I promised!**

**Enjoy and lemme know what you think!**

* * *

Present!

* * *

Arabella and Emma reached the rest of the group in no time at all. They all stood bunched together, shifting on their feet. The secrets must have made all uncomfortable, which was understandable. Across the stone bridge that looked out of place held a small area where Bealfire was contained in a cage.

"You save him," Emma instructed, "If you help save him and he says you're alright I will have no reason to not trust you, because I trust him. But don't take that lightly," She warned, "I always know when someone is lying. You can lose this trust just as quick as you've earned it.

Arabella nodded, walking down the small path and getting on her knees in front of Baelfire's cage, "Oh Bae," She breathed, "Look at you, you're.. all grown up."

"Arabella? Is that you? You've only aged, what, five years?" Bealfire questioned, surprised to see his old friend, "You still look so young."

"I aged another ten years in my time away from Neverland," She explained, "Shortly after I helped you leave, Pan sent me away. He brought me back for a while and then.." she paused, "He banished me."

"Banished you?" Baelfire questioned, "But you were his pet, why would he do that?"

Arabella sighed, the thoughts of the past causing her to freeze for a moment in time, "Baelfire I came to help Henry. I never knew he was you're son. My secret... my secret may just ruin every chance I have to help you."

Baelfire stared at her without blinking in his own contemplation, "I have to help my son, Arabella. You have to let me out. These people," He said, pointing over to the group, "They never fail. Even if a plan falls through we always find a way. It's kind of their thing," He smiled, still looking over at them.

"Bae... I know what Pan thinks my secret is. And he's wrong. He thinks I'm going to come in here and admit to them all that I have powers. He thinks I'm keeping that as my secret and it will ruin any type of trust they have for me."

"He doesn't know how you helped me?" Bealfire questioned as Arabella shook her head no, "If he knew that I had enchanted a cocoanut for you, he would have known that you know I have powers. That's not my secret, Bea. It's... much worse."

"It's okay, you can tell me anything. I know I can trust you, and i will make sure the others do too."

"I'm.. I'm Peter Pan's true love," she sniffed, trying to contain her emotions as the weight of the words left her lips.

"No," he whispered, eyes wide as the cage door opened, "How could he not know that?"

"I think he had his suspicions. I think he sent me away when he started to realize it. I was the only one who knew it for sure. Tinker Bell-"

"Tinker Bell showed you how to use the pixie dust."

Arabella nodded, "When I was here, and still so young, there was no love. It was when I came back that things.. things changed. After my body aged to that of a seventeen year old I came back, and for eighteen years I stayed in Neverland before Peter sent me away with his shadow."

"How? Someone like you?" Bealfire answered, still sitting in his cage, "Pan is the worst kind of evil."

"I know. I was.. I hoped I could change that."

"You never will," He said, exiting the cage as the others came over.

Immediately him and Emma embraced one another, causing Hook to turn his head away. After a few moments, Arabella spoke up.

"I really hate to interrupt this, but we need to get moving."

"Not so fast," Emma said, removing herself from Baelfire's embrace and staring at her sternly as if she were her mother, "You helped us save him, but there's one more thing," and she turned to Bealfire, "Can we trust her?"

Bealfire looked between Emma and Arabella. He knew that the others did not hear her secret, and that was the only thing that made him wonder if she may not be able to trust. After a few moments he sighed, "If it wasn't for her, I would have never escaped Neverland."

"Is that true?" Snow asked, taking a step toward the inner part of the circle they had formed.

"Yeah, she used her magic to enchant a cocoanut for me to catch Pan's shadow and send me home. I hid it somewhere in the cave I used to stay at," He said.

"You're little star map thing? Yeah we found that and hid it within the cage. We figured it would show the way home," Emma said.

"What I don't understand is," Bealfire started, causing Arabella to hold her breath. He was about to expose her, "Why do you want to save Henry? If you're secret is true, if you are Pan's true love, why don't you want to help him?"

The group gasped at the news and Arabella chose to respond before their profanities could start, "Love or not, I have to do the right thing, I have to help Henry," she said, looking at each of them in the eyes.

"Well, if anything we now have a weapon against Pan," David suggested, his attitude toward Arabella growing even more sour.

"That won't work," Arabella said sadly, "Pan doesn't love me. He banished me before he could ever fall in love. I think he sensed it," she said, partially repeating herself from earlier.

"Well, she's not lying about wanting to save Henry," Emma sighed, "For now we have to take a chance and hope it works. But if you fail us," she said, pointing at Arabella, "We will kill you."

Arabella knew the threat was hallow, but she nodded anyways. She wasn't lying to them, she did have intentions to save Henry. What they didn't know what that she had a plan to save both Henry AND Peter. I'm sure you could understand why she decided to keep that bit of information under her belt.

* * *

**Past!**

* * *

**Arabella, who's body was still ten years old, was now out of Neverland for the first time in hundreds of years. It was weird for her to not be able to just imagine something and have it. Pan had to send her with provisions, money and two pieces of paper with instructions on them. The first one had directions on how to get there and the second had an image of the cottage for her to be able to confirm that she was indeed in the right place.  
**

**Looking down to the second paper, and then back up, she was able to confirm that she was here.**

**Arabella was under the strict instructions that no one was to know where she came from, who she was or that she was any way associated with Neverland or Peter Pan.**

**She took a few steps onto the property and was greeted by a stone statue of a man and a dog, both dressed in the finest of suits. Their faces, immortally plastered in stone, gave her the absolute creeps. Shaking her back a little, she balled her fists and kept walking until she met the door and knocked.**

**The woman who answered was elder and plump. Her grey hair was pulled back and mostly contained by a blue bonnet. A yellow apron was tied around her waist, the shawl around her shoulders a matching color of the apron.**

**"Ohh dear," The woman chimed happily, her smile causing her face to wrinkle, "An anonymous bird came saying that a poor young orphaned girl was coming. You need help learning to control your powers, yes?"**

**Arabella nodded, holding the sides of her nightdress that she had arrived to Neverland in. Pan had her change back into it so that she would fit in more with the people of the Enchanted Forest.**

**"Well, I happen to be quite skilled in magic. Don't you worry, child," the woman said, placing her hand on Arabella's shoulder and leading her into the small cottage, "Old Mother Hubbord is going to take good care of you."**

* * *

_**A/N: How about THAT dearies? What a twist! In both past, and present! Favorite and review and tell me what you think!**_

_**I've had this story up about four days and I now have seven chapters, so that's promising. :)**_

_**-Marty**_


	8. Zoso

**My first review came! I was so excited. She did, however, point out that I was spelling Baelfire's name wrong! I'm so sorry! I'll catch myself and correct it from now on.**

(Please remember, folks, I wrote the first 6 chapters on my phone. There ARE spelling errors I'm aware of. Eventually I will go back and fix them. As of right now I'm too lazy to. But now I have spellcheck, so sorry!)

* * *

_"It's much less picturesque without her catching the light_.  
_ The horizon tries but it's just not as kind on the eyes as Arabella."_

_-Arctic Monkeys_

* * *

Present!

* * *

"There's one thing we haven't addressed," Emma said as the group was walking toward the caves that Baelfire once called home.

"And what's that?" Hook questioned as he walked behind her, hoping that she would address their feelings.

"Neal said you enchanted a coconut for him to capture Pan's shadow. Then earlier you made the comment that you could have gotten out of the ropes had you wanted to," Emma said, asking her question without really asking one.

"What? Someone with magic in them is new to you all?" Arabella questioned.

Emma tilted her head to the side and shrugged, "Yeah, I guess you're right. If anything at least we have an advantage with more magic on our side."

"Well, the problem isn't having enough magic, it's out smartin- wait, what?" Arabella questioned, looking over to Emma, "_More _magic?" She questioned.

"Well yeah, Regina and Gold are with us," She said before looking down to her hands awkwardly, "Apparently I have some too. But I'm just... nowhere near knowing how to control it."

"It takes time an patience," Arabella insured, "Who is Regina? And Who is Gold?"

"Oh. Right. Enchanted Forest don't know them by their Earth names," Emma sighed, "I keep forgetting how weird you people are."

"Hey!" Hook and Snow said in unison, David shaking his head with a smile.

"Regina is the 'Evil Queen'," Emma explained.

Arabella nodded her head, "You know I didn't spend too much time in the Enchanted Forest. I mean yeah, a full twenty years. But the first ten I was with my Father," she said, not even knowing why she was opening up to these people, "But I was so young. And when I went back, I was just training. I was brought back to Neverland before I could ever get into their politics."

"Well," Snow said, deciding it would be best for the group not to question their newcomer of her past, "It doesn't matter how people viewed Regina or Gold anymore. They were both terrible in their past but they've changed," She said, second thinking herself, "Or at least they're trying to."

"Alright. Regina; Evil Queen who is good-Er.. _trying _to be good," Arabella corrected herself, "And Gold?"

They all shifted looks to one another. Only one reaction ever came from someone finding out who Mr. Gold really was, and it was never good. Their only hopes were that Arabella had been in Neverland long enough to have never crossed paths with Rumple for her to feel negative. Little did they know that yeah, she may never have crossed paths with him, but he sure has mad an impact on her life.

"He's the dark one," Emma said carefully.

Arabella stopped in her tracks, her mouth opening slowly as her eyes grew wide in shock. Her lips moved as if she were going to say something, but no words were coming out of her mouth.

"Wait, wait wait," Emma said, raising her hands and stepping in front of Arabella, "I'm not sure what exactly in your past that he's done to you but I promise you that Gold- Rumple is a changed man. He wants to do good. He's here helping us save Henry, his _Grandson," _Emma said, "Neal's _Father."_

Arabella looked from Emma to Baelfire, shock plastered across her face. With every moment she stayed in Neverland, the harder it was to convince herself that she was in fact doing the right thing. What was holding her back?

She had already exposed her secret to save Neal, and now she was helping save the Grandson of the man who had killed her Father.

Right and wrong fought each other in her head as her face turned sour very quickly. She looked up at Baelfire and scowled, "Your Father killed mine," she growled, the anger raising from her body as she began to be covered with a thick red smoke, lightly raising off of her skin.

* * *

**Past!**

* * *

**Zoso had lost all will to live when he watched his only daughter, the last thing he loved, drown at the bottom of a lake. It broke his heart even more that he knew she could have escaped and chose to die anyway. Never did he want her death to be in vein, but he needed her.**

**He needed the last thing that kept him sane.**

**With her last breath, was his last inch of sanity.**

**And with his new found state of mind, he had found the one man that lived in their town just coward enough to be brave enough to try and kill the dark one. Redundant, he knew. But Rumpelstiltskin was the only man he knew desperate enough. He had spent his previous days manipulating Rumple into fulfilling the plan that he wanted to. Since Zoso could not retrieve the dagger himself, seeing that he was under the control of the Duke, he had to find someone else to get it.**

**But trying to convince the town coward into stealing the dagger was harder than he had hoped it was going to. He realized the only hope he had to get revenge for his poor baby girl was to leave it in the hands of this man. If he allowed Rumple to kill him, not only could he reunite with his daughter, but he was sure that the hate Rumple felt for the Duke surely would be strong enough to have him kill him.**

**Zoso felt the presence of the dagger being owned by anew, meaning Rumple had indeed succeeded in his mission. A small sigh of relief left his lips, "I'll be with you soon, BellaDonna," he whispered into the air, hoping she would hear him in the afterlife.**

* * *

_**a/n: I'm sorry, I feel like this chapter was lacking a lot. I did give the information that I wanted to get through in this chapter, but I feel like I could have wrote it better. My mind has been in a blank state all day, I'm just not feeling well mentally. I defiantly wanted to put more attention and detail into the explanation of her Father's death. But it's just not there with me right now. I'm really sorry. I will try to post again tomorrow, or the next day, I promise to try and make the next more enjoyable.**_

_**Pan will be back in soon, don't you worry dears.**_

_**-Marty**_


	9. Trust

**A/N: Oooo I am SO excited for this chapter. Like.**

**SO freaking excited.**

**Yesterday was the week anniversary of this story! Sooooo here's to seven days and nine chapters! Enjoy~**

* * *

_"Just might have tapped into your mind and soul_  
_ You can't be sure."_

_-Arctic Monkeys_

* * *

Present!

* * *

"Arabella, please!" Baelfire yelled with his hands raised in defense, "You think I like what my Father did?" he argued.

Arabella growled, the dark red fog dropping to the forest ground and hovering at her feet, "You never told me!"

Growing scared, the rest of the group drew their weapons and took a few steps back from the spreading fog of magic.

"I didn't know!" Baelfire pleaded, not moving from his spot as the fog inched closer. She couldn't really hurt him, could she?

"Didn't **_know?!"_**she roared, fire crackling in the fog momentarily, "How did you not know the Dark One was your Father?!"

"I didn't know **_your_ **Father was the old Dark One!" He pleaded, growing angry with her, "It seems like I'm not the only one here who neglected to say something! Why do you think I was in Neverland? **_How_ **do people get to Neverland, Bella?" he questioned, sarcasm dripping off of his tongue.

Sudden realization hit Arabella as the fog began to disperse, "You felt lost..." she said just barely louder than a whisper.

"I felt **_unloved,"_ **he said, his voice cracking.

Arabella couldn't tell if that was because he had just reached that point of anger, or if it was his emotions seeping through his words.

"My Father couldn't chose me over power," he went on, "He had a chance to start a new life with me. One without magic," Baelfire paused, shaking his head as he balled his fists and hung his head, "He didn't chose me. I ended up at the Darlings and then here," he said, emphasizing the last word as he looked up to her and pointed at the ground, "Trying to protect them!"

"And Pan still kept them anyway," she said blankly, not having it in her to raise her voice to any type of emotion. She felt drained from the past 24 hours.

"He's the worst kind of evil," Baelfire said, repeating himself from earlier.

That stung Arabella's heart, but she knew it to be true. As soon as the fog was gone David and Hook ran forward, grabbing a hold of each of her arms. She felt too emotionally defeated to want to fight them as she was pretty sure she had now lost their trust over this.

"Bella," Baelfire said, lowing his arms but his emotions were still caught in his eyes, "We can't trust you, Bella."

He sounded almost pained to say it. It hurt her to hear it.

"I know, Bae," she sighed.

"What are we going to do? You said ropes can't contain her unless she wills it and we can't bring her with us," Emma said, stepping to Neal's side. She looked uncomfortable.

"Why is he here with you?" Arabella asked, ignoring Emma's comment and keeping her defeated glance toward the ground, "After everything he's done to people. To me. To _**you**_," she raised her glance to Baelfire as if no one else existed, "Why?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"Part of me wants to believe he's changing. That he **_does_ **want to help us save Henry," Baelfire said, thinking back to what Pan said about the prophecy and suddenly doubted Rumple all over again.

"Everyone deserves a second chance," Snow said, looking at Arabella with sympathetic eyes.

At that comment, Arabella's mood flipped and she smirked mockingly, "So this Evil Queen and the fucking Dark One, both responsible for MANY deaths have your trust on belief of a fucking **_second chance_ **and yet here you are. Trying to restrain **_me,_ **who has done **_NOTHING_ **but try and help you!"

They all weighed the words before Emma spoke up.

"I know what love does to people. I know you weren't lying about wanting to help Henry, I know you still aren't. But it was already hard to trust you given your little romance. I know you saved Neal long ago, thank you," She paused, looking at Neal, "Henry wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't," and she brought her gaze back to Arabella, "But look how fast you turned on him for being Gold's son."

Arabella flinched, putting her gaze back down to the ground. Hook and David both still had firm grips on her.

"I can't trust you won't do the same for Henry. And at the end of the day I need to do what's best for my son," she staid sternly, but still looking like part of her felt bad, "I'm sorry, but we have to contain you."

Arabella looked to Hook, and then to David. Their grips got tighter on her arm as if they thought her look meant that she was going to run. Emma held her stern look. Snow and Neal showed pity in their faces.

"But you won't," she said blankly.

"Arabella! DON'T!" Neal yelled as he started to run toward her.

Hook and David made an attempt to grab her with their other hands, but it was futile. She disappeared in her red fog before their second hands even got close to touching her.

* * *

Still present!

* * *

Arabella reappeared in another part of Neverland and let out the breath she was holding. Leaning a hand on a nearby tree she coked on a sob and inhaled deeply, trying to contain her emotions.

"I told you," a sinister voice said from behind her.

She dared not look back and allow him to see her face red, puffy and wet.

"Pan never fails," he said arrogantly, taking a step toward her as a twig snapped beneath his feet.

"How can you plan this far ahead?" she questioned, her voice still cracking.

"Because I know all," he said, grabbing her shoulder and flipping her around to face him. The expression on her face made him smirk happily and wildly in amusement, "And now I also know your darkest secret."

Satisfied that she was now looking at him with her pained expression he took a step back, "And you know," he said, raising an eyebrow and pointing at her, "I'm not all that surprised."

Pan took a quick inhale of breath before pursing his lips, lowering his eyebrow, "But you know," he said, stepping forward once more and grabbing her wrists as he pinned them above her head, bringing his face close to hers and glaring darkly, "You're starting to be a lot more trouble than you're worth. You've already ruined my original plans for you, and now you're more dangerous than I originally thought," he hissed.

"Oh my," she scoffed, finding her voice, "Is poor **_old_ **Peter afraid?"

He slapped her. **Hard. **

It caused her face to fling to the side, eyes wife with shock. After a second she replaced the look with a smirk once more, "Typical to react with violence rather than admit the truth."

He slapped her again.

This time he removed his other hand from her wrist and allowed her to fall to the ground at his feet. Pan breathed heavily in anger, staring down at her with his fists balled. He could kill her with magic but nothing in the world would make him happier right now than beating her to death with his bare hands.

Arabella laughed, spitting blood from her mouth from Pan busting part of her gums. She looked up to him, leaning on her elbow as she brought her other hand up and touched her face.

She could understand why he was her true love. They were both equally as crazy, just in different ways. Pan leaned a lot more toward a dark an sinister way mixed with sadism and being full of himself.

"You're afraid," she said.

He kicked her in the stomach.

Arabella coughed up more blood as she lost her position on her elbow and curled up, hoping he wouldn't kick her again, "Go ahead, Peter. Kill me," she said into the dirt, "What have you got to lose?"

Peter stood there a moment before returning the evil smirk to his face and squatting down to her level. He grabbed her chin roughly and forced her to look at him, "Your suffering," he said, flinging her face away as she cowered back into the dirt, "I'd rather cage you for all of eternity and force you to watch me kill Henry."

Arabella suddenly remembered her whole point of coming back. Pan was, yet again, doing too good of a job of manipulating her into submission. She wouldn't allow it this time. She couldn't let him win. With or without that band of Heroes, she had to go through with her plan.

Raising her hands to his face she planned on doing some sort of a stun spell to buy herself time to get away. But Peter caught her wrist and pointed it elsewhere, causing the magic to hit a nearby tree. Without a second to spare, he brought over his other hand and slapped some sort of leather bracelet onto her wrist that he held.

She smirked at his stupidity for picking such a bad time to give her a gift and focused her powers to her hands once more.

But nothing happened.

Bewildered, she looked at her hand before trying again.

Still nothing.

Peter stood, enjoying her struggle at his feet before he began to laugh, "It won't work," he said mockingly before taking another quick inhale of breath, "You're powerless now. That bracelet is withholding all of your magic."

Arabella scrambled to her feet and tried at prying the thing off of her wrist, but to no anvil. I wouldn't budge and suddenly she felt stupid for not trying to attack him before he got close enough to her. She looked up to Pan, her face etched with shock and fear.

He stepped toward her, she backed up into a tree.

"You're mine now," he said to her before everything went dark as she slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

**a/n: OOO DEAR.**

**BAH BAM.**

**WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THAT?**

**-Marty**


	10. I've Always Known You Were Evil

**A/N: I've had this chapter written on paper for about a day now, and I am quite pleased with it.**

**PLEASE READ THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE.**

**I've just received terrible news that involves my two (very much) younger sisters. My mind is drawing blanks and even though I know how I want the 11th chapter to go, I can't seem to find words right now. I promise you I'll try to update within the week or so. Go ahead and favorite and I will keep you posted. Thanks for all of your favorites, follows and reviews my loves.**

**Special shout out to Ravena, FangedMe and ChristineDaae-ThePrincess for their reviews!I'm sending Pan to y'all's way, where he will give you hugs. (Sorry that I can't control his grumpy ass grumbling as he does so.)**

* * *

_"Takes a sip of your soul and it sounds like…"_

_-Arctic Monkeys_

* * *

**Past!**

* * *

**Old Mother Hubbard was kind and had so much patience, something Arabella was not used to from her time spent with Peter. Over the course of seven years Arabella had just about mastered her powers. She hadn't, however, learned the full potential of them. It was almost as if every day she was growing stronger. Mother Hubbard constantly told her how wonderful she was, and how proud Arabella was making her. The two had grown quite fond of each other, much to Pan's disapproval.  
**

**And no, Arabella had not seen or heard from Peter since before her arrival. Sometimes during the day or very late at night she would feel a presence as if someone were watching her. She summed it down to the shadow coming back to check in on her, but she had never actually seen it to prove her theory correct.**

**"Again, Dear, you've almost got it," Hubbard cooed as she looked up from her rocking chair that she was knitting in to see Arabella had missed her mark in target practice.**

**Arabella huffed, raising her hand once more and releasing another thunder bolt at the target and missed, yet again. Instead, the bolt smacked dead onto the statue of the man and dog, breaking the umbrella from his hands.**

**Hubbard looked up from her knitting once more and, upon seeing where the bolt hit, jumped from her chair and hobble/ran toward the statue, "My boy!" she hollered, dropping everything to the ground.**

**"Mother?" Arabella questioned, puzzled at the old woman's reaction.**

**It was just a statue, right? Even the weakest forms of magic could always fix any damage done to it. That was when she noticed it. The statue was... melting? From where the statue broke there was a slow progress of stone falling as it reached it's way toward the top. Wide eyed, Arabella ran to where Hubbard was. The old woman was already kneeling in front of the statue, trying to contain it with her magic to prevent the rest of it from falling to pieces.**

**"W-what did I do?" Arabella asked, completely flabbergasted.**

**"Fix the pieces, Arabella!" Hubbard instructed, ignoring her question, "Start using your magic to put it back together so that I can reseal it!"**

**Arabella, although she had more questions, did exactly as she was told to. When everything was put back into it's place and mended together a glowing gold covered the entire statue before it returned to it's normal state before this entire fiasco. The two sighed in unison, although Hubbard was more relieved than her.**

**"What happened?" Arabella asked after a few moments.**

**"It's my son," Hubbard said as she stood up and put her hand on the chest of the statue, "He is contained in here."**

**"What?" Arabella exclaimed, "W-Why are you containing him!?"**

**"Because he was dying," The old woman sighed, "A powerful warlock struck him and our dog. I froze their bodies and sealed them in stone until I could find this warlock and make him reverse what he has done."**

**"Is... Is he suffering?" Arabella questioned, looking up to the face of the statue.**

**"I don't know," Hubbard sighed, looking away.**

**"But what if he is?"**

**"I'll do whatever it takes to save him, Bella."**

* * *

**Still Past!  
**

* * *

**Later that same night Arabella sat in her bed, staring up at the stars. The second one to the right, to be more specific. For seven years she stayed right where she was supposed to in Mother Hubbard's care. She never left to look for her Father, let alone his killer, if he even was dead. Part of her still refused to believe it.  
**

**Having enough of tormenting herself, she stood up and closed the shutters to her window. Arabella sat down on her bed and sighed, twiddling her thumbs. Even though Hubbard had asked Arabella to call her Mother, not once did she ever truly feel like family.**

**Call her crazy. Call her stupid. But fuck did she ever miss Neverland. That was her home. She never understood why, but she was always longing to go back. Never feeling complete while she was away.**

**At that thought a haunting tune rang through her bedroom. Ears perking up, Arabella ran to the window and nearly tripped over a trunk on the floor in doing so. She knew this music. Slamming the blinds open she searched all the nearby fields.**

**There.**

**Over toward the right field was smoke rising. There was no sign of anyone gathering and she didn't expect there to be. She was the only child within miles of this place.**

**"You really did come back," she whispered happily as she threw her cape on and damn near flew out of the cottage and toward the smoke. Her heart was beating faster as she drew closer. The smoke got thicker, and the music got louder. Thankfully, Arabella was now in more control of her magic and was able to contain herself from dancing the way the music used to make her.**

**"Peter!" she yelled happily as she ran up and threw her arms around his neck.**

**It was almost weird, but felt so right. Just seven years ago when her body was still ten years old she was barely able to wrap her arms around the middle of his chest. Now her head rested comfortably on his shoulder, dug into his neck.**

**Shocked, Peter moved the pipes from his mouth causing the music to stop. Instinctively his other hand came around and rested on the back of her shoulder blade.**

**"I never thought I'd actually see you again," she sniffed, hoping that Pan had forgiven her for helping Baelfire escape by now.**

**Before Peter had a chance to respond or do anything he saw Mother Hubbard approaching from behind Arabella's back. She was still about fifteen feet away, but he still directed Arabella to stand behind him.**

**"Bella?" The old woman asked, squinting her eyes to get a better look and as she focused was when she noticed it was Peter with her, "Bella get away from him!" she screamed frantically, taking a few steps forward before Pan raised his hand.**

**She stopped immediately, struck with fear.**

**"Stay right where you are," Peter instructed, standing his ground but making no effort to keep her still.**

**"He's dangerous!" Hubbard continued to scream as she brought her hands together as if she were praying.**

**"I'd shut my mouth if I were you," Peter scorned, his face twisting evily.**

**Arabella stepped off slightly to the right to get a look at the woman. She placed a hand on Peter's arm and called over to her, "It's okay, he's not dangerous!"**

**Well, _kind of_ not dangerous.**

**"Quiet, Arabella," Peter snapped, looking up to the sky as his shadow neared.**

**He seemed like he was in too much of a rush, what was he avoiding?**

**"Arabella! This is the warlock who did that to my son!" Hubbard yelled, tears flowing down her face, "He WILL hurt you. Please come here!"**

**Arabella's mouth fell agape and her lips moved as if she were going to say something. But nothing immediately came out.**

**"N-no," she said, "Peter wouldn't-"**

**But she was cut off when Peter grabbed her arm and yanked her off of her feet. She looked up to see that his other hand was attached to his shadow as they flew toward the direction of the cottage.**

**"Wrap your arms around me and hold tight!" he barked, pulling her up to give her more leverage to do so.**

**She did exactly as she was told. Peter let her hand go as soon as she was safely latched around his neck, supporting herself.**

**"You should have kept your mouth shut, Hubbard!" he yelled down to the woman as he raised his hand and pointed toward the statue of her son.**

**"PETER NO!" Arabella screeched just in time for a bolt of darkness to fly from Peter's hand.**

**As soon as it made contact, the entire thing crumbled into pieces.**

**The pained cry of Mother Hubbard was the last thing Arabella heard before they disappeared into the clouds, tears stained down her face. She looked up to Peter.**

**He couldn't have looked more pleased with himself as he wrapped his arm around Arabella and continued the journey back to Neverland.**

* * *

Present!

* * *

Arabella groaned as she began to wake up. She had a slamming headache and her stomach was sore and bruised, along with her face, from where Pan had hit her. She raised her hands to heal her wounds and when nothing happened she cursed under her breath as she remembered her powers were gone.

It didn't take her very long to realize she was back into the bamboo cages she had grown oh so fond of. (Sarcasm.)

Another thing she noticed was that her body was covered in a thick line of sweat, her body glistening in a yellow light. She felt like she was being roasted alive.

With a pained grunt she sat up the best she could in the small space the cage provided and pulled off her blouse. Underneath she was wearing a thin white shirt, which closely resembles a modern day white beater. She threw the shirt to the ground below her before she heard a sizzle.

Confused, she looked down to see that her cage was less than a foot up, and less than a foot to the side of a fire.

"What the FUCK," she yelled, kicking at the bars on the cage with the strength she had.

Whatever spell he used to knock her out still had it's effect on her.

"You can't roast me alive, Pan!" she screamed, knowing that even though she didn't see him that he in fact could hear her.

It was obvious he wasn't actually trying to cook her. The cage was just barely off to the side enough that she would never catch ablaze, but she was defiantly burning up. Even for Pan, this was a new low.

"I don't plan to," she heard his voice say as he stepped from the trees.

Arabella wiped her forehead but that didn't matter seeing the sweat returned only seconds later, "What the hell are you doing, Pan?"

"I told you, you're alive so that you can _suffer."_

"You mean more than you've already made me suffer for just about my whole life?!" she screamed.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You know, I think you need to relearn some of your manors," He smirked, taking a step further an kicking an ember log under her cage so that it would grow hotter for her, "Or things might just get worse for you," he said, his smirk turning into a scowl.

"Fuck you, Peter."

He didn't want that to hurt his feelings, but it did. In Pan's head he repeated the same things over and over again. The same thing he had been saying to himself since he first saw her again in Neverland.

_"Remember you hate her. Remember you hate her. Remember you hate her."_

"Oh if I had a lost boy every time I heard that," he said, laughing as he walked toward her cage and brought his face close to the bars (The cage is low enough to the fire so that when Pan stands next to it, his chin and up is visible from the floor of the cage. Just to give you a better idea), "I'd have an entire army."

"And you'd have more Lost Boys who all hate you and cry every night to go home to their parents," she hissed as she brought her face down.

Pan growled and with a flick of his wrist the cage disappeared entirely, causing her to fall right on top of the hot ember log.

Screaming in pain, Arabella kicked her feet and scooched away as quick as she could, holding her side that was now burned.

Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.

Face once again in the dirt, both hands holding her side as she was bent over on her knees, Arabella screamed. Pan's feet appeared in her vision.

She hoped he wouldn't kick her again.

* * *

**A/N: So how do you guys feel about our Peter trying to deny his true love by convincing himself to hate her? **

**Like/Fav/Review.**

**-Marty**


	11. Destiny is a Bitch

Present.

* * *

Arabella still stayed on her knees, hunched over with her face in the dirt. Thankfully, Peter _didn't _kick her. In fact, he didn't do anything. For a moment he just stood there.

Curious, Arabella lifted her head from the dirt just enough to look up at him. His fists were balled to his sides as he stared down at her with the most murderous intent look. She swallowed the lump that was growing in her throat.

Would he just stand there the whole time, or did he have something else planned?

"You had better not run," He growled in a low voice before he disappeared.

Shocked, Arabella jerked her head back while shaking it slightly and pinched her eyebrows together. The fuck?

Confused, she held her side with one hand and made an attempt to stand. Thankfully she was right by a tree, because that helped her tremendously.

Why had Pan went from the worst physical torment, to leaving her? Out of the cage, that is.

Arabella sighed, looking down to her feet as she scrunched her eyes shut and leaned on the tree with her good side. The burn stung so bad, it was like her skin never stopped cooking. Not to mention the amount of sweat that had collected on her skin was only dripping into the wounds, causing them to burn more.

She perked her head up and looked around, trying to see if she recognized where she was. A few hundred years on this island and you'd think she would, but she didn't. Pan must be changing the island constantly. Again.

Closing her eyes she focused on the sounds of the forest. Very faintly she heard the sound of running water off behind her. Whipping her head to the side, very excited, Arabella began to dart toward where she heard the water.

Fuck Pan. He and her both knew damn well she wouldn't get far, or even escape, without her magic. She was sure that going to the water would upset him, but at this point she's going to get fucked with anyway so she might as well enjoy what she can.

Upon reaching the water she carefully leaned down, left hand still holding her burned right side, as she dipped her free hand into the water to check the temperature.

Freezing cold.

Counting her blessings for a cold night, Arabella removed her gator boots the best she could with her restricted movement and then pulled off her wool socks. She now remained in her dark leather pants and still the white beater from earlier. Not even taking the time to ease in, Arabella pinched her nose and jumped right into the water feet first.

The water was so cold that if she hadn't of been holding her breath it would have taken it away. When her head submerged from the water she sighed in the almost immediate relief that her side felt. The pain was very much there, but she'll take what she can get.

Taking full advantage of the situation Arabella began to wipe the sweat from her body, washing away all of the oils into the small lake. Going back under water she shook her hair with both hands just to release the dirt. She came back up to the top of the water and wiped the moisture from her face before opening her eyes.

"I told you not to run off," Peter said, standing on the side of the lake.

"We both know I wouldn't have gotten far had I been trying to escape you," Arabella said, raising her wrist to remind Pan that he had her under lockdown.

"That's not the point," He said, glaring, "I _told you not to run off._"

Arabella stayed still and stared blankly at him. She didn't honestly know what to do. She was sure there was nothing she could say to make him feel better, and defiantly nothing she could do at this point. If anything he's more pissed off of the fact that she got a moment of peace and contentment from the water rather than suffering.

"Get out," he ordered.

Arabella sighed, doing as she was told. When she reached the ground that Pan stood, she began to ring her hair out of all the extra water. Before she could even reach the tips of her hair Pan had her by the neck and was slamming her into a tree.

Arabella choked, grabbing a hold of his wrist with one hand and the hand around her neck with the other, "P-Peter-" she coughed.

Peter pressed his body firmly against hers, allowing his chest to apply pressure to her burns.

She felt the pain, and with the restricted air movement her adrenaline was going crazy telling her to find a way out. But at the same time, Peter's body pressed against hers just felt too... too right. Arabella mentally punched herself in the head and moved her other hand up, trying to pry his fingers away.

"Do you remember when I said you were mine?" he asked, his face so close to her's that she felt the breath of his words on her cheek.

Peter removed his hand from her neck, allowing her to replenish her breath. With all of the air coming back at once Arabella grew lightheaded and swayed forward a bit. Peter prevented her from falling by now pressing his upper chest to her as well.

And there she was, sandwhiched between him and a tree. Their bodies were so tightly pressed together she could feel his heartbeat on her skin. The rise and fall of his ribs while he breathed. She dared not look up at him. Instead she stared down, trying to focus on any one thing around her that wasn't the thought of him on her.

Peter smirked, realizing what she was trying to do and tilted his head to the side and leaned his head down to put it directly in her view, "Look at me."

Arabella kept her eyes down, looking at the bone by his shoulder.

"Look. At. Me." he repeated.

Arabella looked up and locked eyes with Peter. They stared at each other for a while. He looked focused, as if he was searching her for something. She, on the other hand, could not concentrate on anything more than trying to figure out what he was thinking.

Why did he have to be her true love?

Why couldn't it have been someone else? Someone nice from the Enchanted Forest that she didn't feel the need to have to stand up to. Someone that could provide a healthy relationship for her. One where he took care of her as much as she did him. Where they could be happy in a small house somewhere and grow old.

_Grow old._

Something Peter Pan would never do. Would never _allow _himself to do. Of all the years she spent with him, Arabella never knew his past. Never knew what drew him to rule Neverland and live forever. What part of him wanted to stay young forever, and why? A fear of death? Growing old? Responsibility?

She resented her true love.

She hated him in the most loving way she could. Fate brought her here, she was sure. And for that... she despised destiny.

Pan must have found whatever he was looking for because he released himself just enough to hold her to the tree without applying too much pressure to her body. Her side screamed in pain, but she dared not flinch or show it in her face. She couldn't falter now.

Instead she waited, wondering what he was going to do.

And at that moment he leaned his head in to her and crushed his lips against hers roughly. The hunger and force in his kiss surprised her, and she hated him, but that didn't stop her from closing her eyes and kissing him back with just as much force.

Her arms raised from where they dangled beside her and rested her hands on the crooks of his elbows, his arms finding their way across her waist. That hurt her as well, but at this point she didn't even care.

Then, just as quick as it happened, it was over.

Pan drew back quickly, throwing himself away from her but staying close, "Fuck!" he yelled, shoving her to the ground roughly.

Arabella hit the forest floor and groaned in pain, holding her hands to her side once more. He really wasn't helping with her headache.

"YOU'RE GOING TO RUIN EVERYTHING," he screamed, leaning his upper half down slightly as if to help himself scream louder.


	12. The Spreading Sicknes

**Another shout-out to Fanged me and ChristineDaae-ThePrincess for their reviews. Pan is sending more hugs, and he's not even grumbling this time.**

**Must be getting used to you. ;)**

**Also, I was updated today that my sisters are doing great. **

* * *

Present!

* * *

Arabella took a moment to catch her breath that the pain from her burn had taken away. She clutched her side more, hoping that the pressure of her own hand would help subdue it just for now.

"I'm not trying to ruin anything, Peter," she groaned into the dirt.

Peter fell to his knees in front of her and grabbed the back of her hair, turning her to face him, "BUT YOU ARE."

"Peter I still want you to be able to live forever," she responded weakly, trying to hold back her tears.

This caught him by surprise. He let her hair go, stood up once more and took a step back.

"And how do you intend on doing that," he smirked evilly, "When you're trying to take the ONE THING that is going to do that for me?" he said, his voice twisting to anger once more.

He started pacing, the expression on his face showing that he was at war with himself.

And he was. He wanted to kill her. He wanted to hurt her. To make her suffer. The same thing he always did with everyone who ever interfered with his plans or even disrespected him HALF as much as she had. But he could think about it all he wanted, there was always something deep inside him that wasn't letting him.

It couldn't stop his anger, or the evil inside of him, but it prevented him from going over the edge with her.

And he hated her for that.

Clutching his eyes shut very tightly he stopped and looked down to her, waiting for her response. If she even dare lie to him about not wanting to take Henry, she would be punished.

"You don't need Henry," she finally said, her voice in a low whisper as if she was afraid to say it.

"_**I do,"** _he scorned, and at the thought of Henry he realized that he had something he needed to do.

But he needed to figure out what to do with her first.

He could always make another cage and put her inside of it.

"Peter, please. You _don't_, I _swear_," she pleaded.

"I'm already sick of hearing you," he said dryly and raised his hands, swiping them to the side by her.

Nothing appeared to happen, until Arabella tried to speak and realized she couldn't.

Great, now Pan had taken her magic, and her voice. Once again he was reducing her to nothing.

"I've got a better idea for you," he smirked, raising his hand again and Arabella was rendered unconscious once more.

Once she was he healed the bruising on her face and made a long sleeved shirt appear on her body. He wanted her to keep the pain in her stomach, and the burns.

What mattered is that no one could see them.

* * *

Peter arrived back at the camp, carrying the unconscious Arabella.

"Who is she?" Henry asked, running up to Peter with a worried expression.

"Her name is Arabella, she's another Lost Girl just like Wendy," Peter sighed, laying Arabella down on the ground about 10 feet from the fire, "Felix! Get me a blanket and a pillow!"

"H-How come I hadn't seen her before?" Henry asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"She controls the watches of the Lost Boys around the perimeter of the Island," Peter lied, "She never liked to sleep in camp, always under the stars," he sighed, pretending to have his feelings hurt over her.

"What happened to her?" Henry asked as Felix arrived with what was asked of him and handed it to Peter.

Peter lifted her head gently and laid the pillow beneath it before flinging the blanket over and covering her with it, "She got sick," he paused, "Just like Wendy did."

"But how?" Henry asked, "Wendy is in her tree, if this girl got sick too she would of had to be near Wendy."

Peter paused, thinking of an excuse. He covered up his borrowed time of thinking by brushing a strand of hair from Arabella's face, "That's what I was trying to tell you earlier, Henry. Magic is dying and so is the island," Peter looked over to all of his boys with a pained expression, to add the effect, "Soon enough all of my Lost Boys will start suffering too."

"N-No, we can't let that hap-" But Henry was cut off by Felix yelling over.

"Pan! She's gotten worse!" He yelled.

Henry turned his head away from Pan and looked over to Felix. Peter smirked evilly, everything was going so well.

When Felix got close, Peter dropped his smirk and began to look worried once more as Felix laid Wendy down next to Arabella.

Henry looked absolutely mortified, "We can't let them die!" he exclaimed.

"Then you know what we have to do, Henry. We have to go save magic," Peter sighed, placing a hand on Henry's shoulder.

"Alright, let's do it."


	13. Finally, the Truth

**I seem to be pretty good at spoiling you guys with a new chapter every day. I hope y'all will forgive me if I ever neglect to post one on a day. ;)**

* * *

_"What if I said I would **break your heart?**_  
_ What if I said I have problems that made me** mean?**_  
_ What if I knew I would just rip your mind apart_?  
_ Would you let me out?_  
_ Maybe you can stop before you start_.  
_ Maybe you can see that I just may be too **crazy to love**_**.**  
**_ If I told you solitude fits me like a glove_**  
**_ Would you let me out?"_**

_-You Should Know Where I'm Coming From- Banks.  
_

* * *

Present!

* * *

Arabella slowly began to regain consciousness before her eyes started to open and she heard the faint chatter of people.

"She's waking up," she heard a familiar voice say.

Arabella breathed out. She would have groaned but her voice box was currently paralyzed, preventing her from being able to make any noise.

"Bella," the voice soothed, trying to raise her to a sitting position with one hand on her side, the other on the lower part of her neck.

She gasped and would have screamed, if she had been able to. The pressure on her burns hurt her. The hands left her just as quickly as they touched her and she fell back to the dirt. Even with her aired whimpering, the hands raised the lower part of her shirt up to her ribcage to reveal the burns and bruises.

"**He** did this to her!" the voice exclaimed angerly.

Arabella finally opened her eyes to see who the voice belonged to.

"Baelfire?" she tried to say. Her mouth moved but only air came out.

He looked down at her confused, "What's wrong?"

She struggled as she sat up, holding her head with one hand to try and comfort the headache that threatened to rip her skull apart. She hated being normal and never realized how much she needed and relied on her magic until now.

"What's **wrong," **Regina scowled, taking a step toward them, "Is that you let her get away in the first place!"

Arabella looked around her to see that the whole gang appeared to be here. And, judging from Regina's reaction, she assumed the ones present earlier informed the others of what they had missed. She wanted to plead, to beg them for forgiveness for her outburst earlier, but alas she had no voice. That was when she noticed him.

Rumpelstiltskin.

Furry fueling her, Arabella jumped up and lunged at him. But Neal caught her around the waist, making her take in another sharp breath in pain. She had no magic, no voice and no weapon. Right when her revenge stared back her, she couldn't even hurt him. The worst part was that he looked **confused.**

**As if he didn't even know her.**

Arabella struggled in Neal's arms, not caring about the pain anymore. She would rip that mans throat out with her bare hands if she had to.

"Bella, STOP!" Neal yelled, his grip on her tightening and loosening when needed as if he was afraid of hurting her.

"See? She wants to kill us!" Regina said, defending her previous statement.

Arabella looked to Regina, pain in her eyes as she shook her head 'no' furiously, tears from all of her emotions flowing down her face. She pointed at Rumple and turned her gaze to him once more, hate filling her eyes.

Rumple, not needing any more reasons for the group to dislike or distrust him even more than they already did, decided it would be best to let her explain. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding. But, knowing him, it wasn't. He waved his hand and Arabella felt the magic release the curse on her throat. She didn't bother to thank him.

"**YOU KILLED HIM," **She roared.

Neal let her go, but stayed near just in case she decided to attack once more. The others looked at Arabella in confusion before turning to Rumple for him to explain himself.

"Who?" he questioned, flicking his hand dramatically.

"**ZOSO," **she yelled, even more pissed that she had to explain, "**MY FATHER."**

The others looked shocked, but only Rumple knew the weight of her words. The others never knew the name of the other Dark One. None of them were around before his death. Except for Baelfire, but he was sure to keep as much information from the boy as he could.

"You're his daughter?" Rumple asked, bewildered, "That's impossible. She's dead."

"No I **am not. **The Duke had me drowned but Peter saved me! I spent all this time in Neverland without a home to go back to **BECAUSE OF YOU," **She screamed, picking up a rock and chucking it at him.

Rumple caught it with ease, as she expected him to.

"She's not lying," Emma said, "She was the one who helped Neal escape all those years ago."

"You helped Bae?" Rumple asked, his face still scrunched. "But you tried to kill him earlier."

"She was upset!" Snow defended, always being the one to justify everyone, "We all do stupid things when we're upset. She got upset when she found out Neal was your son," She paused and looked at Arabella, "And I'm sorry. We... We're sorry," she said, gesturing to the whole group, "We should have understood and continued to let you help us with Henry. What you did was understandable, not right, but understandable... considering what happened," she finished, looking over to Rumple awkwardly.

Arabella looked shocked at Snow's words. She turned toward the group and all that were involved earlier looked at her apologetically. Except for Hook, he looked like he didn't care for much of any of this. Regina still looked fed up, Tinker Bell was staring off awkwardly, Neal put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Bella," he said, his eyes traveling to her waist before returning back to her face, "If we had let you stay with us, he wouldn't have done this to you."

"As sweet as this is," Rumple interrupted, drawing the attention back to him, "We have more pressing matters."

Arabella turned back to him and balled her fists, "I'm going to kill you."

"I don't think that's all that possible right now," Rumple mused, pointing down at the cuff on her wrist.

Regina's eyes widened, how could she have not noticed it? Painful memories of the electric shock through her brain and made her flinch. Arabella continued to glare at the man, using one of her hands to cover the bracelet as if it were going to make it disappear.

"I won't be restrained forever," she warned darkly.

"Your father tricked me," Rumple sighed.

"SO YOU KILLED HIM?! HOW DOES THAT JUSTIFY YOU?!" she screamed, Neal stepping closer in fear that she was about to lunge forward again.

"You misunderstand," Rumple said, his face going sympathetic. Even at his most evil, he would never leave a child Fatherless, Robin Hood was living proof of that. Call it his weakness.

Arabella shook her head, appalled at his lies, "NO. I DON'T. You killed him so that you could have his powers all to yourself!"

"True," Rumple sighed, "But your Father disguised himself and told me where to get the dagger and how to kill the dark one with it. I never knew it was really him. He tricked me. He **wanted **me to kill him."

Neal looked down at Arabella sadly, "It's true," he said quietly, "I was there when your Father came dressed as some beggar."

If Neal had never said anything she would have never believed it. With all of her mixed emotions, Arabella clenched her eyes shut as more tears and sobs that she couldn't control exploded from her. She had never gotten the chance to grieve for her Father. Pan never let her and even when she left Neverland she just... never got around to it. As soon as her hands covered her face Neal stepped in front of her and wrapped his arms softly around her upper half (like, shoulder area) He tried to sooth her with soft 'shhhh's.

"Why?" she choked, not bothering to pull herself away from Neal's embrace.

"Because he thought you were dead. He lost his will to live without you. His last words were for you, Arabella," Rumple said, feeling sorry for her, "_I'll see you soon BellaDonna," _Rumple finished with her Father's last words.

At those words Arabella pulled herself from Neal and turned toward Rumple, "Only he called me that," she sniffed, wiping the snot and tears from her face. When did she get a long sleeved shirt?

Well, actually, Pan called her that too. But only when he was being an ass to her.

And that's when it hit her. Once again, everything came down to Peter. It was ultimately his fault her father was dead.

"Then you know what I'm saying is the truth," Rumple said, raising his hand to his chest, "I would have reconsidered had I known you were still alive. Hell, I was coward enough to. Had you still been around, you would have been the reason I would have turned down the dark one."

"And not me?" Neal scoffed.

"I became the Dark One** FOR** you Bae," Rumple defended.

"But you're evil," Arabella said dryly.

This made Regina chuckle. It always made her happy when she wasn't the only one people called evil.

"I wasn't always,"Rumple said, "And I'm not trying to be now. I've finally got my boy back, I have a love back home and a grandson who needs my help."

"Are you really trying to change?" Arabella questioned, anger still in her expression from what she had realized previously.

Had Peter let her go home from Neverland within the first few days, her Father would have seen that she was still alive and never made the plans to have himself killed. He would have never given up, and she would still have a family. Hate was burrowing down inside of her for Peter Pan. Hate that would never blossom enough, no matter what she did. And that only made her hate him more.

The fact that she couldn't hate him.

"Yeah, I am," Rumple said, interrupting her thought process, "I want to be better," he said, pointing to Neal, "For my boy."

Neal looked at his Father as if he wanted to believe it. Arabella did.

She sighed. She couldn't very well kill him now. Never would she forgive him, don't get her wrong. But no longer could she bring herself to kill a man that was willing to better himself, especially after Neal confirmed he was speaking the truth. Thankfully she wouldn't have to admit that out loud because the group heard a girl calling for help and ran over. Arabella recognized the voice as Wendy's, Pan's long term prisoner, but she wasn't going to bother herself with reacting to it just now. The entire group except for her and Rumple ran over to where the calling was.

That was when Arabella noticed that she was in the middle of the camp, all the Lost Boys passed out around her.

For what seemed like forever Arabella stared at Rumple, who seemed to be pleading with her with his eyes to believe he was a good man.

"I don't forgive you," She finally said, "You took the last piece of family I had."

"No, Pan did," Rumple said, "He was the one who kept you prisoner here."

"I wasn't a prisoner!" she defended Pan, not knowing why, "He kept me safe!"

"But did he keep you happy?"

The words struck her. For a while, yeah, he did. It wasn't until she came back when her body was seventeen that everything went sour. A tension was building between them and it drew a wedge between her and the thought of Neverland still being her home.

She looked down to her feet, not wanting to answer.

"It's true, isn't it?" he said, almost amused, "You're in love with him."

"No!" she snapped, quickly.

"Don't lie now, they already told me what your secret was back in the echo caves."

Arabella returned her gaze to the ground, picking her arm uncomfortably.

"Take a bit of advice from me," he said, stepping toward her and narrowing her eyes, "Pan loves **no one. **And he'll never love you. He only cares about himself and he will do anything to make his life better, no matter who he has to give up to do so."

His words stung, but it was more so the choice of his words that caught her attention. Why would he use the words "give up" instead of "kill" or "use"?

But Arabella had no time to question him before Emma returned, Neal and Wendy at her side.

"We know where Pan is!" she said and then explained everything to them that Wendy had said.

About the heart of the truest believer, the trade and even how it would kill Henry.

"We can't waste anymore time, we have to go!" Regina barked, turning to Arabella, "Look. I don't trust you and I sure as hell don't like you. But are you going to help us save Henry?"

The expression on Regina's face showed one of a stern Mother Bear, wanting her son back.

Arabella nodded, looking down to her wrist, "But how?"

Everyone looked around at each other before Arabella looked over to Hook's sword, "Give that to me," she said, pointing at it.

Hook, without thinking, handed it to her.

"What are you going to do?" Neal asked, reaching over to take the sword from her.

Arabella took a step away from him and held the sword tighter, "For the first time since we've been here, **trust me." **

At those words Neal faltered and nodded his head, putting his hands up as if to say, 'okay, do what you must.'

Arabella put her hand on a nearby tree and took a deep breath.

A blood curdling scream pierced the air of what seemed like all of Neverland, blood spurting on the tree and dirt before her.

She cut off her own hand.

* * *

**A/n: Alright my lovies, what did you think about that nice long chapter I posted for you?**

**Leave a review and let me know what you hate or don't!**

**Also, sorry for any mistakes. I'm in a rush today and didn't get a chance to re-read this chapter. I still wanted to get it posted for you, though.**

**I'll read over it tomorrow and fix anything I notice!**


	14. Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust

**Woot Woot.**

* * *

_"You ought to know where I'm coming from_,  
_ How I was alone when I burned my home._  
_ And all of the pieces were torn and thrown_.  
_ You should know where I'm coming from_.

_ What if I said I was just too young?_  
_ What if I said I was built on bricks of carelessness and crumbs_?  
_ What if I said I'd be gone before I could come_?  
_ Would you let me out?"_

_-You should know where I'm coming from, Banks_

* * *

**Past!**

* * *

**"Peter?" Seventeen year old bodied Arabella piped quietly, approaching the boy who was perched on the top of the cliff that held Neverland's water, his feet hanging off the edge.  
**

**"Yes?" he said, not taking his eyes off the island before him.**

**"What's wrong?" she questioned, taking a seat next to him and turning her head to look at him. He still wouldn't look at her.**

**"Why do you think something is wrong, Arabella?" he questioned, sounding slightly annoyed by her question.**

**Arabella bit her lip. For a while she's felt it. The first few years she was back she was able to avoid it since Pan always had her controlling watches on other parts of the island. She wasn't a third in comment or anything. The Lost Boys listened to her, yeah, but she knew she had no real authority past, "Go here for this." "There's hunting here."**

**By no means did they need to hunt for food, seeing that they could imagine whatever they wanted to eat. But hunting the animals of the island was Pan's way of training the boys to kill.**

**A month ago Pan brought her back to the camp, sending Felix to take her place in watching. In the past month there had been more than enough awkward moments. Something was building in Arabella and she could feel it. Most of the time she felt that it was one sided.**

**Stictly because of moments like this. Where she tries to explain herself to Pan and, before she could even talk, he always made her feel stupid.**

**"I don't know," she finally said, looking down at the tree tops below them. That response was easier than anything else she could have said.**

**Peter grumbled, "You know I hate lying."**

**"And you hate weakness more than that. Which should I disappoint you more with?" She asked sarcastically, looking to him once more.**

**Peter looked to her and glared, "You've already disappointed me more," the words slapped her in the face, "Are you really admitting to weakness? Never do that. Never," he scorned, "Because even a wrack person has the potential to be strong if they just believe."**

**Arabella debated between scoffing and being touched. As mean as the words sounded, they were hopeful, "Are you going soft, Peter?" She chuckled, sweetly playing with him.**

**But Peter didn't take it that way, glaring harder at her and shoving her down to the ground by her neck. Now she laid on her back, feet still off the edge with Peter at her throat. He was still in his sitting position, only leaning back and to the side to be able to hold her in place.**

**"First you admit a weakness that you don't tell me what is, and then you insult me. What is your game, BellaDonna?" He questioned, using that painful nickname.**

**He wasn't holding hard enough to restrict air flow, just enough to scare her.**

**"I'm not playing a game," she breathed, avoiding as many words as she could in case she said something more to upset me.**

**Peter smirked, raising an eyebrow, "Everything is a game."**

**"Even me?"**

**At those words Peter's eyes opened slightly in shock. It was his turn to look as if the words slapped him in the face, causing confusion to spread across Arabella's. The feeling that had been building in her stomach grew once more.**

**Peter suddenly let her go and sat back up, pulling his attention back to the trees. Arabella took a moment to regain herself before sitting up as well, looking out just as he did and fiddled her thumbs.**

**"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" He sighed, going back to his annoyed tone.**

**And so we've come full circle.**

**"I don't know, I feel like I'm being avoided," she huffed, not wanting to look at him or she would lose all the courage she had to say something in the first place.**

**"Are the Lost Boys not listening to you?" He questioned, sounding angered.**

**"What? No. Of course they do," she said, scrunching her face and shaking her head as if he asked a stupid question.**

**"You're talking in riddles," he said dryly, putting his hands together as he rested his elbows on his knees.**

**"I meant by you."**

**"What?" He hissed, turning toward her as if she just confessed a sin.**

**"I mean. I was gone for seven years, I came back and you immediately put me on the other side of the island. You bring me back to camp and then don't even look at me!"**

**"You're OLDER now, and you have responsibilities. You trained your magic and proved your loyalty by coming back. I forgive you for Baelfire, ALLOW you back into Neverland and even put you in a higher ranking to be in charge and your COMPLAINING because you don't see me?" He roared, "What are you expecting, Arabella?!"**

**"You," she said before she could think.**

**Why did those words come out? What was happening? It was like she couldn't control herself with him. Both of their eyes went wide and Arabella stood up, running off from him.**

* * *

**More Past!**

* * *

**Arabella continued to run through the forest until she made it to a familiar tree house. TinkerBell's.**

**TinkerBell was the only other woman on Neverland that had free roam, and the only other woman Peter trusted as far as he could throw. But Arabella had never seen much of her.**

**Even during the watches she would only send the Lost Boys to report in on her, under Pan's instructions. He never wanted TinkerBell to rebel, so he constantly wanted Arabella to send the Lost Boys to remind her who was boss.**

**Just then, Arabella was backed into a tree, a knife at her throat.**

**With a flick of the wrist the body of the person threatening her was flown across the clearing, smacking into a tree with a groan.**

**Angry at the defiance Arabella never experience from the well behaved Lost Boy's before, she walked over prepared to scorn them to the Hallows and back.**

**But when she reached the struggling body she saw it to be TinkerBell, "Have you gone mad?" she asked her.**

**TinkerBell looked up to see if was Arabella and faltered, "I-I'm sorry I didn't realize it was you."**

**"Why are you attacking anyone, anyway? If you hurt a Lost Boy, Pan will have your shadow," she scorned, pointing at the woman.**

**"Felix has been sending them to burn things."**

**"What?" Arabella questioned, furious.**

**"Yeah. The devil believes you were too soft on me and wants to make a statement they still have their roughness," TinkerBell spat, standing up and brushing herself off, "Personally I liked it better when you ran them. They came, looked around and left."**

**"Just as I told them to. There was no need to do any more, you know what we're capable of. Felix just has a superiority complex and constantly feels the need to make a point," she sighed.**

**"Yeah well, talk to Pan and get back on this yourself," TinkerBell said, "I'm getting tired of this."**

**At the mention of Pan her heart dropped. Maybe avoiding him entirely and coming back to lead the Lost Boy watches were what was best for her. For him, too. She didn't know why, but there was this connection with them that was only getting stronger. It was almost as if she could sense that he was at war with himself. It was her own emotions, and perhaps hope, that made her feel that it was over her. **

**"Yeah, that might be best," Arabella sighed, defeated.**

**"What's wrong?" TinkerBell asked, "I mean, I don't really care you you all but you've helped my life be good for the past few years. I feel I owe you something. Even if maybe that's just someone to rant to?"**

**Arabella looked at her and bit her lip in contemplation. It would be nice to have someone to vent to for the first time in.. Well ever.**

**"Let's go inside, I need to put a seal on the house so Peter can't hear. And we've got to be quick, before he notices something is up."**

* * *

**Still Past!**

* * *

**"Sounds like love to me!" TinkerBell laughed.**

**Arabella scoffed, "I do NOT love Peter Pan."**

**Arabella didn't tell TinkerBell anything more than what has happened between her and Pan in the past few years. She didn't have enough time to go on about her whole life, surely Pan would be looking for her soon. Seeing that she no longer controlled watches, she would end up having to report back soon. Couldn't disappear for days on in like she used to.**

**"I'm a FAIRY," she paused before upsetting herself, "Well used to be. I know love when I see it. Trust me."**

**"I could never love someone like Pan. I mean, don't get me wrong hes helped me so much and gave me a home, but he's so..."**

**"Evil?" TinkerBell snickered, "Look, if you don't believe me, there's only one way to find out," she said and retrieved a small vile from her necklace That was filled with a grey dust.**

**"Is that pixie dust?!" Arabella exclaimed, shocked. It has stopped growing within the past year, Pan had grown too weak.**

**"Yeah, from my own stash. I'm a believer in happiness, and happy endings. It's kind of a fairy's thing. And who knows?" She quirked, "Maybe you'll e what changes him?"**

**Arabella laughed, "By throwing pixie dust at him?"**

**"No, by using the pixie dust to find your true love, and believing in him." **

**Believe. The thought sparked an idea in Arabella's head.**

* * *

authors note: sorry this chapter was written on my phone. I needed to get the words out before I lost them.

when I get home later tonight I'll edit and fix mistakes.

sorry for so much past, but trust me it will be worth it next chapter!


	15. Losing Neverland

**I'm uploading twice today because I don't plan on uploading tomorrow. Enojy!**

**Special shout-out to scorpiangirl92 for her first review! Sending Pan for hugs, but he's grumbling! I'm sorry, he'll get used to you~ Also, to answer your question dearie, you'll find out next chapter! Promise! (To give you a hint, Rumple had to do something similar before he killed our poor Peter in the show.)**

**Another shout out to FangedMe for being my most loyal reviewer! Once again, sending Pan to you. He's bear-hugging by now! 3**

* * *

_"Always cold_ w_hile you'd self-incriminate_,  
_ By avoiding all my questions_, a_nd calling me an instigator_.  
_ Cut me down_.  
_ Always calling me unstable._  
_ You so easily can make me cry,_  
_ Just cause you are in a mood."_

_-Change by Banks_

* * *

**Past!**

* * *

**Arabella had been walking for a few moments with the pixie dust that TinkerBell gave her, contemplating what she should do. What if her true love wasn't here? That's what she wanted, wasn't it? Love? Would she be able to leave Neverland, leave _Peter?_  
**

**Shaking her head, she dumped a little bit of the dust into her hand and took a deep breath in, closing her eyes.  
**

_**"I believe," she thought in her head, "I believe in true love."**_

**At that she blew the dust into the air and opened her eyes. The air around her began to glow a bright orange color, completely engulfing her before it shot away. Bewildered, Arabella guessed she was supposed to follow it and ran after the light.  
**

**So her true love was on Neverland.**

**What if it was one of the Lost Boys? Arabella cringed. Only a few of them had their bodies old enough to be a match to her, and none of them were appealing. The thought of Peter being her true love crossed her mind once more and she shook her head no, continuing her chase.  
**

**The tree's grew thicker and Arabella realized where the light was taking her; to the old trees the Pixie Dust used to grow. Peter had banned anyone but himself from entering. Sweat poured down the back of her neck as the thought of Peter being her true love became more and more likely. **

**Just at the edge of the tree line that marked the barrier they were not allowed to cross, she stopped. The light kept going but she didn't follow. If the light really was leading her to Pan, she couldn't follow. She'd have to wait so that she wouldn't break any rules. Just then, the light turned around and went right through her to go behind.**

**Confused, Arabella turned her body quickly and the light smacked behind a tree, causing whatever was behind it to shimmer.**

**She took a step forward and a breath, "P-Peter?" she questioned, her voice shaking. The bottle of the remaining pixie dust in her hand threatened to break from how tight she was squeezing it.  
**

**"You really have gotten good at your magic," she heard his smug voice, "This is the first time you've ever been able to sense me before I made myself known."  
**

**Did he not see the magic the pixie dust did? Was it only her eyes?**

**Peter took a step out from the trees and he was glowing gold. Her heart stopped and she felt dizzy. For a moment he looked concerned before returning his smirk.**

**"Do... You can't see that?" she asked, pointing at him.**

**Peter looked down to his arms, and then to his body, "Are you trying to play a trick on me?" he questioned, angry.**

**"No.. Peter... No," She stammered and took a step toward him, holding her hand out to touch him.**

**He really couldn't see?**

**Arabella waved her hand over Peter's arm to see if the magic wavered. It didn't.**

**She touched his skin to see if it would fade. It didn't.  
**

**She tried to cover the glow with her own hand. It didn't.**

**Her mouth kept opening and closing as she inspected his arm, his eyes wide the entire time.**

**"If I wasn't so intrigued by your actions, and as to why you are doing them, I would have thrown you by now," he scorned.**

**Arabella realized what she was doing and let his arm go, taking a step back to give him his space.**

**"I don't believe it," she said, saying the one thing that TinkerBell told her not to do. She needed to believe.**

**"Don't believe what? That I'm human?" he scoffed.**

**"No," she paused, "That it's you."**

**"What's me?"**

**For a moment she contemplated telling him what she was doing, and how she saw him glow. But she didn't. It wouldn't be a good idea. She looked up to Peter and smiled, her niceness causing him to raise an eyebrow.**

**"Have you gone mad?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. He looked like he was trying to stop himself. To control himself.**

**His frustration and anger just didn't seem genuine anymore. Maybe it did. Arabella was just drunk on love.**

**Too drunk.**

**Letting out a giggle, she threw her self at Pan, who's back crashed into a tree, and pressed her lips against his. For a moment he gripped her arms dangerously, glaring at her. But then he gave in. One of his hands wrapped around her waist, the other grabbing a fist full of her hair and holding that behind her neck, forcing her head to crush her lips harder to his. Arabella wrapped her arms around his neck and for a moment nothing existed.  
**

* * *

**WARNING. SMUT. PASS OVER THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ IT.  
**

* * *

**His lips moved against hers with talent as she struggled to keep up with him. But her innocence only aroused him further. With a soft growl of desire he pulled her closer to him, everything was happening so fast.**

**His lips trailed down her neck as he left kisses and nics of his teeth down her flesh. Arabella shuddered and arched her head back, getting a satisfied smirk from Peter as he skillfully moved across her clavicle to the other side of her neck.  
**

**"Peter," she breathed as he unlaced the strings on the back of her shirt, pulling it down to her elbows to reveal more of her to him and restrict her movement.**

**She felt helpless, but in all the right ways. Peter took a step forward between her leg, brushing his thigh on her mound as he pulled her knee up to his side, holding her waist still. Gently he lowered the two of them to the ground, positioning himself above her.**

**In a blur of kisses and deep breaths, they were both completely exposed to one another.**

**Arabella was just as much drunk on love as she had ever been, Peter filling himself with what he help telling himself was just lust over and over again.**

**He hovered at her entrance, staring down at her as if he were looking for the answers to something. She looked up to him and, as their gaze met, a spark flew between the two of them and Peter wasted no time entering into her.**

**She clutched his arm with her nails and let out a pained, but pleasured, moan. He let out a deep breath into her neck where his face was buried and only waited a moment before continuing to pump inside her over and over again.  
**

**"P-Peter!" She cried out, something twisting inside of her core begging to explode at any moment.**

**Her calling his name made him move into her with more passion, his face scrunching up in pleasure and concentration.**

**_"It's lust. It's lust. It's lust"_ he told himself over and over again in his head. **

**"Say my name," he ordered when he exhaled, a soft moan escaping his lips as she bucked her hips against him, "Say it!"  
**

**"Peter!" she yelled, arching her back as she was coming close.**

**"Again!"**

**"Peter!" her voice was cracking in between moans, right on the brink of release.**

**"Scream it." he sexually growled in her ear, sending a hot breath down her spine.**

**That sent her overboard as her release took over her body, causing her legs to twitch as she screamed out his name. Soon after Peter, too, let out an audible gasp and finished as well. **

* * *

**Okay, you're safe now. :)  
**

* * *

**Peter rolled off of Arabella, their naked bodies slick and wet from their adventure. For a moment the two laid there not touching, but close, as they both looked up to the stars and tried to catch their breath.**

**"You know," Peter said, keeping his eyes on the stars, "When you said you were expecting me, I **_wasn't_** expecting**_ that._**"**

**Arabella couldn't help but chuckle, not knowing what to say. She took a few deep breaths in and that's when it all hit her.**

**What the fuck did she just do?! And Pan, at his comment, made her believe that he thought she was expecting sex, and nothing more.**

**"Peter," she whispered, turning her head to him. He kept his gaze up, "This isn't... This isn't what I meant."**

**Eyebrow tilting up, her turned and looked at her, "Oh?"**

**"No, Peter. This just kind of... happened?" she said, questioning herself. Once again she started feeling like a moron.**

**"You know I hate it when you talk in riddles," he groaned, turning his gaze back to the stars.**

**Perhaps she should fuck him more often. It seemed to relax his mood a bit. He would have been irritated and angry by now, on normal terms.**

**"Get to the point."  
**

**"I.." she paused, sitting up, "I think that-"**

**"Oh **_no,"_ **he said, sitting up and staring at her.**

**There it was, the anger she was expecting.**

**"You're _falling _for me," he almost laughed.**

**Arabella closed her mouth from being cut off, taken aback. He was mocking her?**

**Peter began to laugh.**

**Yeah, he was mocking her.**

**He waved his hand and, in an instant, both of them were dressed and he ripped her to stand up by her arm and started to drag her off.**

**"Peter what are you doing?" She asked, stumbling at his pace. Between her legs was still sore.**

**He didn't answer, and then his shadow appeared. He tossed her over to his shadow, who snatched her up around her arms. Arabella was raised from her feet, kicking and screaming.**

**"Don't **_ever** return,"**_** was all he said before the shadow took her away.**

* * *

**A/N: Stay tuned for the next chapter! It's going to be in Pan's perspective, taken place after Arabella runs off from him at the cliff, and then another cliff note that will take place after the 'deed' is done.**

**Then back to the present! (All in the same chapter!)  
**

**Are you excited yet?!**


	16. Peter Pan Never Fails

**Another shout out to scorpiangirl92 for another review! Pan is sending grumble-free hugs. :3**

**I know I said I wasn't going to post today but I was so excited for this (_possible_) LAST chapter, that I couldn't wait. (_AFTER_ reading, read the Authors Note at the end of the chapter.)**

* * *

_"Oh I see that looking back  
I know I blocked out all the red flags  
I should of seen that you would only mess me up  
I should of seen that I would only mess you up  
I know you hurt, I know you hurt, I drove you crazy  
You should of seen that I'd only mess you up  
I should of seen eventually you would give up"_

_-And I Drove You Crazy by Banks_

* * *

**Past: Peter's POV after Arabella ran from him on the cliff:**

* * *

**What the hell just happened? Peter stared confused as Arabella ran off, a part of him fighting himself to go chase after her. He shook his head, why the fuck would he want to run after her?**

**Grumbling, he stood up and disappeared, reappearing at his private spot, the thinking tree.**

**Peter stood two feet from the tree and sighed.**

**This was where he abandoned him, his only son. He knew he was never meant to be a Father and he stuck to his words that he had said to Rumple the very day he left him.**

_**"We both know you're better off without me."**_

**His own words rang in his head. Perhaps it was Pan that was better off without him, or a mixture of the two. Regardless, he didn't regret abandoning his own son. Not one bit. Since then he now rules an Island, is young forever and has magic beyond his imaginations.**

**After he gets the heart of the truest believer he was destined for great things.**

**The thought of the girl came back to his head. **_His_** lost girl. He knew from the moment she hugged him at Mother Hubbard's that she was beginning to be the epitome of the reasons why he never let a girl stay in Neverland. Girls, in their own way, were dangerous.**

**They were distractions.**

**They were feelings waiting to be built up.**

**But he needed Arabella. Needed her magic to stay strong when he was weak, to ensure his victory in the heart. After that? Who knows. Part of Pan believed he needed her for more than just that and the thought of it drove him wild with anger.**

**What the fuck was she doing to him?**

**He cursed under his breath, taking a seat on one of the fallen logs as his face twisted in anger.**

**Ever since she was a little girl Peter was drawn to her. Not sexually, no. But it was how he found her. He was in the town recruiting boys when he spotted her and her Father. Before she even showed signs of magic he knew he needed her to be a part of his Lost. But of course, when he saw her potential his plans for her served to better himself. He couldn't help it, it was who he is. Nobody mattered more to him than himself.**

**The thought of how he felt since first laying eyes on her was what kept her close to him, but distant. No matter how he treated her, she always ran back with her smiles and hopeful stares. She was such a foolish child.**

**Now that she was aged to seventeen, she was even more dangerous.**

**Pan mentally smacked himself for not allowing her to age, even while she was gone. He could have played it to Mother Hubbard that perhaps the girl was cursed and couldn't age. He could have thought of anything, but part of him**_ wanted_ **her to age. Wanted her to grow to be as old as he, and stay that way with him forever.**

**He gripped the hair on the sides of his forehead. There he went again, to those thoughts. The ones that made him weak.**

**What the fuck was happening?**

**He couldn't ask himself enough.**

**Then, he felt a presence in his very being that said someone was close to the boarders of the Pixie Trees. Fists balled, he disappeared from his spot to see which Lost Boy he was going to have to punish.**

* * *

**Past: After the 'Deed' was done, Pan POV:**

* * *

**Peter wanted nothing more than to burn everything in his sight. He stared up at his shadow taking away Arabella, who was still begging Peter to not let her go. A familiar feeling clenched his heart. Peter Pan may have been evil and only worried about himself, but he wasn't heartless.  
**

**Never did a tear shed for his son.**

**Never will a tear shed for Arabella.**

**Regardless, for both times, his eyes stung as if they were going to. **

**Peter began punching the trees as he stormed off, letting his anger out onto the island. He could feel in his soul every punch he landed into the island. Every part of the Island was a part of him and he was beating the living hell out of it.**

**Suddenly, vines sprang out and grabbed him, slamming him face first into a tree and holding him to it.**

**Peter immediately recognized the magic and cursed out. The tree of regret.**

**"I don't regret it!" he screamed, but it didn't let go.**

**Peter forced his forehead onto the bark, painfully digging it into his forehead, "I DON'T REGRET IT!" He yelled once more. Still nothing.**

**Finally, he admitted inside of his head that he did and sighed, completely defeated but still very angry. He had two options. Admitting his regret or changing his thought process to admit it to be a good thing.**

**He chose the ladder.**

**"I don't regret it," he said once more, trying to feel it to be true, "She was a weakness. She was dangerous. She wanted more of me and I..." he paused, suddenly feeling stupid for talking to a tree, "I wanted to give it to her!"  
**

**The tree's grip didn't budge.**

**"I wanted to, but I can't! I won't. She interferes with everything I have planned, with everything I want! I need this heart, and she was only getting in my way," he said, slowly making himself grow angry with her, "She was holding me back. She was a pain in my fucking ass."**

**"I don't regret it."**

**Finally, the tree let him go.**

**Now that Peter had changed his mindset completely against her, he straightened himself and brushed the dirt from his clothes. Deep down, for whatever reason, he still wanted her. But regardless, he did not regret letting her go. Not anymore. It needed to be done. **

**Pan never fails, and he would be damned if he was going to let a woman be the cause of it.**

* * *

Present!

* * *

The others screamed as well upon seeing what Arabella had done. She stood there, knees bucking as her body threatened to pass out. Perhaps doing this on an empty stomach with no powers wasn't a good idea. But it needed to be done. Her one hand, that was still attached to her body, was gripping her arm tightly as the pain steered through. Blood was pouring from her and for a moment she forgot her whole reason for doing this.

"Are you insane?!" Regina screamed, taking a step back, completely disgusted.

Arabella shook her head, "The... bracelet," was all she could get out.

Neal, suddenly understanding, ran over to her and knelt down in front of her, "Hang on, I'll get it," he said frantically, grabbing a hold of the bracelet and removing it from her wrist.

Magic couldn't remove it. No one's magic except for Pan's could. But without a hand in the way, Neal was able to peal the bracelet right off of her wrist. Before Arabella could even raise her good hand to make the other re-attach, her hand was already there and the pain was gone as quick as it came.

She looked over to Rumple as he was lowering his hand, clearly being the one who healed it for her.

"Thank you," she grumbled, straightening herself.

"Well now that this fiasco is over... can we go and save Henry?" Emma questioned.

The entire group nodded and ran off toward the lake, leaving Hook and TinkerBell behind to care for Wendy and the Lost boys.

* * *

Still present!

* * *

Gold walked through the portal moments before and Neal had asked if Regina could remove their shadows to allow them through as well.

"If I knew that spell do you think I would be here right now?" she questioned with all the sass the world could muster. (Fuck I love Regina.)

"I do," Arabella whispered, looking at her feet.

"What?" Emma asked, taking a step toward her.

"I know the spell," she said, looking up at Emma, "I taught myself how to do it after I witnessed Peter do it to a Lost Boy once."

"Well, come on!" Regina exclaimed.

Arabella nodded and first, pulled her own shadow from her. It was tricky to do it in such a way that wouldn't kill or knock her out like it did most people. If a shadow was removed you have until the body decays for it to be put back. Because once the body dies, the shadow is trapped in an eternal form.

When she was finished her shadow remained for a moment, hovering by her.

"Go help Hook and TinkerBell," she said, "Forever help them all."

Emma, Regina and Neal raised an eyebrow at her comment, "Forever? It won't take us _that_ long to save Henry," Neal said.

"If your shadow is removed before you die, it's stuck forever," She said, taking a step back and toward the protection spell.

It hit Neal what she was saying, "You don't plan on coming back... do you?" he questioned.

Regina make a move to grab her, but Arabella stepped out of the way. When she tried to use a spell to freeze her she reflected it with a flick of her wrist and stepped behind the protection barrier.

"Don't do this!" Neal yelled.

"You have to remove our shadows, we have to save Henry!" Regina screamed, growing furious.

"I promise you, I'm going to save him," She said, "But I need to save Pan, too."

"I _knew_ it," Regina hissed, "She's been working for Pan the entire time!"

"No!" Arabella yelled, tears welding in her eyes, "He won't hurt your family anymore after he gets what he wants! It's the only reason he was trying to get Henry! He'll live in Neverland in peace when he gets what he wants, but he doesn't need Henry!" she looked to Neal, "Please. Please understand."

"Why?" Neal asked, looking hurt, "After everything he's done to you?"

"Because I love him, Baelfire. I'm in love with Peter Pan," she said, her tears falling as she gave the man who was once her good friend as child one last smile before running up the steps where Peter and Rumple were.

She saw just in time for Rumple to be sucked into Pandora's box. Honestly she didn't even feel bad. He was alive, so Neal couldn't be too upset. A man like him deserved to be contained. A dark thought crossed her mind because, honestly, so did Peter. But that was okay because, after this, he would be contained.

In Neverland. With his Lost Boys. Just where he wants to be, forever.

She reached the top of the steps as Peter put the box down on a ledge. He was about to go back and retrieve Henry, but instead turned around and noticed Arabella.

"I see you've woke up an-"

But before he could finish Arabella waved her hand and froze his body in place.

**_"Arabella,_**" he growled in by far the most disturbed angry voice she had ever heard from him, "Let. Me. Go." Furthermore he wondered how she got the cuff off.

"This doesn't have to happen, Peter," she sighed, nearing him with her hand raised just in case he tried to escape.

Peter took it as a threat.

"Are you going to kill me?" He laughed, "Oh I'm doubting that."

"No, Peter," she said, her tears from moments before and fresh ones from now staining her face, "That was never what I wanted."

He glared, "And that's why you're trying to take everything I need to live, right?" he scorned.

"No. I'm trying to give you everything you need to live," she said, smiling weakly.

The comment shocked Peter as he raised and eyebrow. The closer she got, the more worried he became.

"Hey.. Y-you're the Lost Girl from earlier," Arabella heard a small voice from behind Peter say.

She craned her neck around Peter to see Henry walking over.

"Go back where you were, Henry," Peter said through his teeth.

"Is she.. Is she freezing you?" Henry asked, noticing that Arabella had her hand raised still.

"Henry?" Arabella questioned, "You're going to go home with your family, okay?"

"No, Henry!" Pan yelled, "We have to save magic! She's trying to stop us! She wants this Island to die!"

Henry looked panicked as if he didn't know what to do. He was weaponless and against someone with enough magic to stop Pan.

"Henry. I'm going to save magic, and you and Peter," she smiled, "Trust me," she said and then looked to Pan, "Peter just doesn't want it to happen this way."

"Why?" Henry asked.

"Shut up!" Peter yelled, growing angry with her.

"Because he needs your heart, Henry," Arabella said, looking back over to the boy.

"I know, he said I need to believe."

"ARABELLA," Peter yelled.

"No Henry, he needs your heart," she said, putting a hand over her own chest, "And it will save him, and magic. The whole island. And it will kill you."

Henry took a step back, mortified.

Just then, the rest of the crew ran in there screaming the small child's name. Before Regina could attack, Arabella turned and froze them in their place too.

"Arabella let us go!" Neal screamed, growing angry with her as well.

She ignored him, and the rest of the comments they were screaming as she walked closer to Peter. She was inches away from him when she stopped, her trademark smile that he had, at one time, loved, plastered on her face.

"I need his heart," Peter whispered dangerously.

"No, Peter," she said, shaking her head as she reached into her chest and pulled out her own heart, "You need the heart of the truest believer in you. Henry's would work, he is the truest believer. But I was made for you. I am your believer."

Peter's eyes widened in shock as he looked down and saw her heart before him, "No. No," he mumbled, "No, no, no, no, NO," he yelled, his struggle becoming more and more visible as he began to try harder, "Arabella DON'T. PUT IT BACK. DON'T DO THIS!" he yelled, staring at her heart completely mortified and very angry.

Arabella shook her head once more, a small chuckle escaping her lips as she leaned in and left a kiss on Peter's cheek, her lips wet with tears.

"YOU CAN STAY IN NEVERLAND WITH ME. FOREVER!" he screamed as her heart neared him, "Don't! Don't! PLEASE!" He started to be able to move very, _very_ slightly, trying to break free of her magic.

His love for her that he had been denying all these years were finally hitting him all at once.

Unfortunately Arabella knew it was all too late. The time they had spent together all those years ago in Neverland were all that they were ever going to have.

Peter Pan would always be evil. Even if she would allow him to take Henry's life for them to live together forever, he would always be the villain to her. He would live his days in anger and sarcasm. That would be okay with her, if it didn't mean the death of an innocent. She loved him just for who he was, and she was the opposite side of crazy that would keep him in check. To balance each other eternally.

The thought made Arabella smile harder.

"Pan never fails," she laughed, "I wouldn't let him fail. Because neither does love ever fail."

Before he could respond, Arabella shoved her heart into his chest.

She would never know the lies Peter told her and controlled her life. She would never know if Peter felt the same way. Never know how their love would feel when they both weren't hiding it anymore. The thought saddened Arabella, but this was kinda what love meant to her. Sacrifice. And she was more than willing to sacrifice her life for him, and others.

Darkness engulfed her once more, and for the last time. Within hours Pan's magic supply would run out, he would begin to live off of her heart and she would be dead. She only hoped, with her last minute of consciousness, that her heart would be what puts a little bit of good in Peter's soul.

She hoped that they would get Henry out in time for Peter to not try and get vengeance.

Hoped her heart had enough good in it for him to not feel the need for it.

Above all, she wished she could kiss Pan just one more time. One more equally willing and passionate kiss.

* * *

**ALRIGHT Y'ALL NEED TO READ THIS:**

**I CAN continue this story. I have a few ideas. This, honestly, was where I originally planned on ending the story.**

**So, you want me to continue? Leave a review and let me know. Cause if y'all are satisfied with this, like I kinda am, then we can leave it here.**

**If not, I can continue the story with my idea to keep it going. (And we'll see how that works out.)**

**Hoped you liked my story dearies~**

**-Marty**


	17. Never-Again Land

**Wow a whole lot of you were pretty upset I wanted to cut the story. Thanks for the uhm...** _informing _**messages you all sent. And by informing, I mean threatening. (At least the few who reviewed to keep it were nice about it. D:)  
**

**Anyway, Pan hugs to everyone who PMed or Reviewed! **

**Gosh, put the pitch forks down. Here~**

**I now realize that ****_briefly _****in chapter 5 I made a comment like Arabella knew that Baelfire was the son of Rumple, who is the son of Pan. I've taken that out of the chapter (Seeing that I forgot my intentions for chapters 7 &amp; 8 with her outburst upon finding out.)**

**Now, let's erase that from our memories and go forth knowing that she DOES know that Neal is Rumple's son, but DOESN'T know that Rumple is Pan's son.**

**So uh.. I'm gonna try my best. I usually have my entire story planned as I write, but now I don't.**

**I'm not too sure how this is gonna go, but we'll see!**

* * *

_"I'm waking up to ash and dust_.  
_ I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust."_

_-Radioactive by Imagine Dragons_

* * *

Present!

* * *

Arabella's eyes did something she never expected them to do again; They opened up.

With blurred vision her eyes focused on the sky above her, noticing the clouded seemed_ a lot bigger_ than they normally were. Wait. What?

Jumping up and giving herself a head rush, Arabella grabbed her forehead as she looked around to see Neal and Emma. They were saying something but her hearing hadn't quite returned yet. Or she wasn't focusing. Something was wrong.

Jolting her head around she tried to take in her scenery, wondering where she was and how the fuck she was even alive.

"It worked! We made it in time!" she heard Neal say.

"If you were worried about timing you wouldn't have suggested that we wait until we were on board," Emma responded, rolling her eyes but clearly relieved.

"Where's Peter?!" she yelled, noticing all of the Lost Boys sitting around what appeared to be the deck of a ship.

They all looked at her and turned their heads awkwardly. Most looked scared, the others excited. Felix was off sitting in the center, glaring to each boy but saving the worst scowl for Arabella.

"Bella," Neal said, grabbing her shoulder and trying to get her to look at him, "Bella!" he yelled until she locked eyes.

"Where's Henry?!" she yelled to him, grabbing his shoulder in hysterics as well. When did she get more tears on her face? "I'm alive!" she yelled, seeming more distraught about that then she should have, "Did he take Henry's heart?!"

Neal shushed her calmly, "Bella calm down. Henry is fine. Regina is below deck with him right now tucking him in for bed."

Arabella sighed in relief, lowering her hands and calming her self. Then, just as quick as she was calm she was frantic again, trying to force past Neal's grip to stand up, "Peter! Where's PETER?!"

Neal groaned and Emma decided it was a good time to walk away. The expression on her face said that whatever was going on, she wanted no part of it.

"He's on the island still, we're on Hook's ship, getting away," He said, "We trapped his shadow into one of the sails so that we could fly back to Storybrooke."

Arabella shook her head, tears falling down her face, "No, no, no, take me back!" she yelled, slamming her fists into his chest, "Take me back he needs my heart to live!"

"WE CAN'T LET HIM LIVE, BELLA!" Neal yelled, scaring her into utter silence and stillness.

"B-But.."

"No, Bella!" Neal said, removing his grip from her, "He proved that he can't live! We_ have_ to let him die!"

"Because even with your sacrifice, he tried to take Henry's heart. He used the magic yours fueled him with to try and defeat us," Neal explained, "We knew you would try and save him. That's why when Regina took your heart from his chest, we decided to wait until you were already off the island to put it back inside of you."

She wasn't surprised that her heart had given Peter magic before he even started living off of it. Her heart possessed magic from her being born with it. God only knows how powerful Pan would have been when the process completed. A lot more powerful then Henry's heart could have done, that's for sure.

Arabella wanted to shake her head and tell him he was lying, but she knew he wasn't. "I hoped," she started, sniffing loudly, "I hoped the good in my heart would be enough to make him not as evil."

Neal looked at her with pity and pulled her into a hug, the first one she had received in a very long time, "It didn't. I'm sorry," he said softly, "Look we have to get away as quick as we can, he's coming for Henry and you."

"Me?" she questioned, pulling away to give her enough room to look up at him.

"Yeah, he wants you."

The thought made her heart drop. Why did he want her now? She looked toward the back of the ship, where Neverland was inching further away from. Her heart longed to go back, to get Peter and spend his final moments with him. But that would just resort in him doing something clever to try and take Henry.

"He won't use your heart, not when it means your death," Neal sighed.

Arabella shook her head as Snow came over, offering her an empty plate. She took it, confused, and then Snow started to ladle some soft of stew into it. With an awkward smile she placed a slice of bread on top and walked away.

"You eat," He said, nodding over to the Lost Boys, "I'm sure there's a few of them over there who still remember you and wanna catch up."

Arabella nodded, though she didn't feel that hungry. She chose a spot next to Felix, staring down at her plate. Although she hadn't eaten since yesterday, she just didn't have the stomach to try and force herself to eat.

"You know, after you were banned from Neverland," Felix said, pausing to add effect, "He always said that you were going to be the reason, should he ever fail."

His words slapped Arabella in the face so hard that she turned her body and slapped him in the face just as hard his his words did. Felix, looking completely shocked at her actions, then scoffed and directed his gaze back to the ground.

"I tried," she mumbled.

"You should have stayed away."

Her mind went blank at that point. She heard some elevated yelled but completely tuned it out and made no attempt to try and understand it. After a while Henry walked over and handed Felix a bowl of food, who declined.

"You both should eat," he said, giving a coy smile.

Arabella looked down to her untouched food that had probably gone cold, "Shut up, Henry," she said, setting it down beside her.

At that, she stood and walked to the front of the ship, watching the clouds as they separated around the ship. She didn't even feel bad for being mean to Henry. It's not like she blamed him, or she wished that Pan had taken his heart. Arabella was just very emotionally void and uncaring at the given moment. Soon, Peter would be dead without a heart to keep him alive and she would be mourning her loss. But for right now, she couldn't be bothered.

She could escape the ship, go back to the island and save Peter, but the better part of her judgement told her that true love was not enough to condemn and entire family to suffer for what she now knew he would try and do. With a sigh and a single tear, she took another deep breath and let it out.

Little did she know, she didn't just tell Henry to shut up.

She told Peter, who had switched bodies with the boy.

* * *

**Alright so there's my attempt at reviving the story. And complaints? Shit that doesn't make sense (Despite what obvious mysteries should be there for the sake of the story, of course.)**

**I really hope this goes okay.**


	18. Entering Storybrooke

**Gah.**

**Sorry I'm not posting at usual upload speed. I've been making my own Peter Pan costume for me to wear for Halloween~**

**If you guys wanna see it when it's finished, I'll post links to my profile and notify you when it's done. It won't be entirely accurate, as I'm adding a few personal touches to it~**

**Pan is sending bear hugs to scorpiongirl92 and ChristineDaae- The Princess for their constant reviews 3**

**Grumble hugs to Nicole, Natalie and wavelights for being first time reviewers! **

**I appreciate the support, guys!**

* * *

_"What if I fell to the floor,  
Couldn't take all this anymore,  
What would you do, do, do?"_

_-The Kill by 30 Seconds to Mars_

* * *

**Past! Taken place at the Tree of Regret with Regina, Emma, Snow and Peter:**

* * *

**"You should have known better than to think you could defeat me," Peter said as he stepped from the trees to reveal himself.**

**"I told you it was a trap," Regina said blankly, losing her patience for the preteen-drama-king.**

**"I'm not surprised you all found me," Peter said, taking a step toward them, "You Mother's have a certain drive when it comes to your children. Believe it or not, I know what that's like."**

**"You have a kid?" Emma questioned in disbelief.**

**"I do," Peter breathed, "Thankfully I don't have to worry about losing him anymore, something we'll all share in common soon," he laughed as the group scowled at him, "You see, I've got him all boxed up," he said, grabbing Pandora's box and tossing it in the air for good measure.  
**

**"Rumple is your son?" Regina asked, "You're lying."**

**"But you're so young," Snow said.**

**"Not really," Peter said, "You see, this tree is very important. It's where I abandoned my boy. And now that you're trapped, I'm going to get Henry's heart and bring Arabella back."**

**"They deserve to live more than you do!" Snow argued, "We WILL get out of this."**

**Peter scoffed, "You're not getting away. You see this tree feels the regret you have inside and traps you by it. And the three of you have a lot of regret," he smirked, walking to Snow, "You. Regretting leaving your child and losing all of that precious time. How does it feel that you are now the same age as your daughter? Can't raise her the way you wanted now, can you?"**

**He had to keep them feeling their regret, to have them relish in it so that he could get back to skull rock and retrieve Arabella's body and take Henry's heart. He could feel a bit of her powers coursing through him, and that would be enough to get passed Neal and the others. More than enough, really, as he or the others possessed no magic.**

**"I regret not taking a better shot at you when I could have," Emma said blankly.**

**"Oh, really?" Peter laughed, stepping in front of her now, "How about giving your own son up? Missing your chances with him now as well. You left him to chase after me, got yourself captured and now he has even less people protecting him. You see I planned this. I had hoped you all would chase me, so you would fall right into this," he said, raising his arms as if to prove a point, "And now with you all out of the way, I'll take what's mine."**

**"Are you done?" Regina said dryly.**

**Peter looked to her amused, but before he could say anything she continued to talk.**

**"I have killed. I have tortured. I cured and entire land and ruined many lives," She said, Peter's eyes widened, "I know I should be overflowing with regret... but I'm not," she hissed as she broke past the vines.**

**Before Peter could react she hit him with a spell, sending him flying back into a tree. He raised his arms to use Arabella's magic, but Regina stepped forward and ripped her heart from his chest. All of Arabella's magic, and that 'complete' feeling he had with her heart in there left with it. The shock of losing the power made his body stumble as he fell to the ground.**

**"And now I'm going to go and give this back to who _really _deserves it, and I'm going to get my son off of this forsaken island," Regina said, scowling down at him.**

**"You can't," Peter growled as he tried to stand, but Emma put a sword to the back of his neck.**

**"You're too weak to fight us, and you know it. That's why you needed us contained. If you come after us, if you try and take them," Emma paused, pressing the blade a little harder to his neck, "We will kill you."**

* * *

Present!

* * *

After what felt like forever of watching the night sky sail past them, they finally landed in Storybrooke. It was daytime in this area and the whole town had gathered at the docs to greet the heroes back home. Snow announced that Regina had helped them all with Henry, making the Queen feel awkward. The crowd cheered regardless.

"And this," Snow said, coming over to Arabella and putting her arms around her, "Is Arabella. She scarified her life for Henry, to try and help save us. She was the one who helped Neal escape this land all those years ago, and now she's going to be apart of this town as one of us!"

"But if she scarified herself, how is she alive?" Grumpy asked, his face twisting in confusion and... well grump.

"Let's just say we found a loophole," David said, offering one of his charming smiles.

"What about this one?" the group heard Henry say.

Arabella was thankful he pulled the attention from her. The last thing she wanted to do was acknowledge people. She still felt hallow and empty after losing Pan and Neverland, for good this time.

"He still needs to be punished!" Henry said, pointing to Felix.

"You're right," Emma said, "Come on, David. Let's take him to the station.

"Good idea, I've got a nice cell in mind for this one," He said, grabbing Felix by the collar and walking off with Emma.

"What about Arabella?" Henry asked, pointing at her.

"I suppose we could get you a place set up in Grannies for a while, until we can find something more permanent with a job," Regina offered, "Regardless of how it happened, I am thankful," she said, though Arabella could hear it was only half truth. The part of her that hated Arabella definitely out weighed her thankfulness for her.

"I want to go back to the Enchanted Forest," Arabella said blankly.

"We can't do that. We're under a curse right now, and we're all stuck," Snow said, looking sorry.

"Then why didn't we use the Jolly Roger to take me back before you killed Peter's shadow?" she asked, his name sliding off her lips in a painful way, sending a sting to her heart that she never wanted back inside of her chest.

"Because-" Snow started, being cut off by Regina.

"Two reasons, Little Girl," Regina said, holding her fingers up as the once nice tone left her voice as quick as it came, "We can't trust you not to find a way back to Neverland and save Peter."

Those words made Henry's ears perk as he looked to Arabella in wonder, would she really have tried to save him again after she knew that he still came back and tried to kill Henry? Would she still help him if she knew that he had switched bodies with Henry?

She looked down at her feet, saying the answer was more than likely yes.

"And we can't trust Peter not to come for you," Regina finished, lowing her fingers.

"He won't," Arabella said sadly, not looking up, "He never will. He just wants power and Neverland."

Regina scoffed, "And that's why he tried to take you in the first place."

Henry looked angry at Arabella's words, but quickly banished the thoughts and looked up to Regina, grabbing her elbow sleeve, "What if she came and stayed with you?"

"What?" Regina scoffed.

"Well you're the most powerful person here," He said, knowing that flattery was sure to win her over. The look on her face said it did, "You can keep an eye on me, and make sure that Pan never gets Arabella either."

"You? You're coming to stay with me too?" Regina asked, lowering herself to Henry's level with a hopeful expression.

"If you promise to look after me and her, and keep us safe from Peter. I'm scared, Mom," He said, adding the last bit for good measure.

"Oh, honey, of course," She smiled, pulling Henry into a hug before ushering Arabella over, "Come on, you'll stay with us. But just until we know for sure Peter's magic has run out and that he's really dead."

The words stung Arabella. Peter. Dead. "Yeah, okay," she said weakly, keeping her eyes on the ground as she walked over to what looked like a large metal box on wheels. They got inside and Arabella looked at it, her eyebrow raised, "What is that?" she asked, for a moment forgetting her troubles.

"It's a car," Henry laughed.

"Imagine it as a carriage that doesn't need horses," Regina said, opening the back door for Arabella, "You get inside and sit there. I'm driving so all you have to do is be patient until we get back to my house."

The trio made their way to the Mayor's home, only one of them aware of what was truly going on. Henry looked out the window of the passenger side door with a very familiar smirk plastered on his face. No one was looking at him, and he took the time to revel in how well his plan was going.

After all, Pan never fails.

* * *

**Holy shit I have over 3,000 views. This is crazy.**

**You guys like it?!**

**3**

**-Marty**


	19. Fate

**Two announcements:**

**1\. I've started a OUAT roleplay in the forums of Fanfiction, the link is on my profile, come join~ OC's are welcome. If you like how I portray Peter Pan, you'll be pleased to know I am going to be playing as him in the roleplay~**

**2\. I forgot what this announcement was supposed to be. *Sweatdrop* Sorry!**

* * *

_"I don't mean to close the door,  
But, for the record my heart is sore.  
You blew through me like bullet holes,  
Left stains on my sheets and stains on my soul."_

_-Werewolf by Cocorosie_

* * *

Present!

* * *

Arabella sat on the end of the bed to Regina's guest bedroom. The woman had provided her with shirt and pants silk pajamas. The coral color of it with her dark hair and pale skin only made her look more dead. Bags under Arabella's eyes gathered darkly from lack of proper sleep and nutrition.

She had yet to eat.

Leaning down to fix the cuff of her pants, she cringed at the feeling of the scar tissue from her burn pulling as it was stretched.

Well, that was going to take some getting used to.

Just then, her bedroom door opened as Regina poked her head in, "I just put Henry to bed."

Arabella's eyebrows furrowed together in wonder, "O...okay?" she said questionably.

"Don't give me that tone," Regina said, stepping into the room and crossing her arms, "I just got my son back from your little boyfriend who tried to kill him. Excuse me if I came to check on the girl who I still think was helping him, regardless of awareness."

_'He's not my boyfriend,'_ she thought.

Arabella looked down to her feet, "I'm sorry."

Regina looked down at her, her scowl not faltering. She couldn't help her curiosity, "For what?"

"For putting Henry in danger by trying to let Pan live," she said, her lip curling as her emotions threatened to have her break down again.

God she felt so weak.

Regina sighed, unfolding her arms and giving a softer approach to her appearance, "I understand what love can do to people."

Arabella looked up, tears welding in her eyes but they refused to fall, she wouldn't let them, "Really?"

Regina's face faltered as if she was offended, "Yes, believe it or not," she spat before calming herself down, "I'm not saying what you did was wrong. I'm just saying everyone has moments where they... lose themselves."

Arabella cocked her head to the side, but before she could ask any questions Regina mumbled her Good-nights and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

The girl sighed, pulling herself onto the full sized bed and scooting back to have her head rest on the top of the headboard. She say in an upright position, hands pulling up her shirt to reveal her scars.

She traced her fingers along the deformed and now mangled skin. Magic had healed her wounds, but the skin was still sore from constantly being stretched, as healed burns tend to do. Arabella sat up straight, no longer leaning on the headboard as she tried to stretch her back. Cringing at the pain, she leaned back and continued her inspection.

"Arabella?" a small voice asked.

She looked over to the door to see Henry stepping inside, closing the door behind her.

"Oh. Henry," she sighed, looking down to her feet as she lowered her shirt. Seeing the boy only reminded her how she failed Peter. Or, well, Peter failed her.

"What happened?" he asked, sitting down at the end of the bed by her feet.

She looked away from her feet and over to the wall, not wanting to look at the boy, "It was an accident."

"You're lying," he said, his tone sounding all to familiar.

Arabella raised an eyebrow and looked at him, "It's not nice to call people liars, Henry. Besides, how would you know?"

"It's not nice to lie to people," Henry said, smirking evilly, "And because I know you better than that, BellaDonna."

The words struck Arabella to her heart, and she knew immediately who it was.

Only one man still called her that name.

Only one man used that name to hurt her.

She fumbled, looking like a flailing maniac as she went to jump out of bed and scream for Regina. Henry flew forward, wrapping one of his arms around her hips from behind her and bringing the other hand over to cuff her mouth.

"So quick to try and reveal me?" she heard him ask evilly, "I'm hurt," he said.

"Peter," She tried to say, but it only came out in mumbles under his hand.

Thankfully, in Henry's body, his physical strength did not match hers. Neither did his height. With an advantage to both, Arabella twisted her body to free herself from his grasp and staggered backwards. Henry made an attempt to grab her once more but Arabella raised her hand as if to hit him from magic.

The smirk on Henry's face dropped and he froze, taking a step back.

"You don't have magic in his body, do you?" She questioned, cocking her head to the side. Her heart was racing, mind telling her that she was playing tricks on herself. Maybe it was fake.

"Henry, this isn't funny," she said, suddenly doubting what she knew was true, "How did you know about that name?"

He shrugged, the smirk returning.

"Don't play coy with me!" She almost yelled.

"I'd keep it down if I were you. Don't want my Mom to see you attacking her only son, do you?" he asked sarcastically, raising one of his hands and putting the other on his hip.

Arabella looked to the door for a moment, holding her breath. When no sign of Regina came she turned her attention back to Peter, raising her hand at him once more, "What. Did. You. Do?"

"I switched bodies with him," Henry said, walking over to the desk in the room and tossing a paperweight between his hands.

"Peter, why?" she questioned, feeling herself falter as her body slumped a bit, "Why didn't you just stay? You.. You're making this too hard."

"Making what hard?" he almost laughed, putting the paperweight back where it was and raising his hands questionably, "You want me to stay on Neverland? To_ die?"_

Arabella clenched her eyes shut, shaking her head. It surely didn't take him long to start fucking with her head again.

"What you're doing is wrong," She said, opening her eyes but keeping her gaze down.

"Do you expect any less from me?" he asked, narrowing his eyes as he walked toward her. She made no attempt to stop him.

Reaching up he stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. Arabella turned her face to get out of range from his fingers and straightened her back, making her height above Henry more noticeable. This was all weird. All... wrong. It was Peter but not Peter.

"You didn't have to do this," she stated dryly, losing her will to argue with him or give into his antics.

Henry's eye grew dark as he grabbed her by the neck, pushing her into a wall. She could laugh at the power he thought he had over her while he was in the body of a ten year old as she shook him off of her and brushed her clothes.

The frustration of Henry was growing clear across his face. Perhaps it was best not to fuck with him right now, surely she would pay for it later? If there was a later for him..

"What was I supposed to do?" he questioned, his eyes staying dark, "Allow you to die?"

The words, although sounding mean, Arabella heard the real meaning behind them as her gaze softened. Perhaps that's what made her his true love. She would be the one to understand him, not matter how he was trying to hide it.

"Yes, Peter," she said, the tears from earlier welding back into her eyes, "You were. You would have gotten everything and everyone would have won!"

"Not me!" he hissed loudly in a hoarse whisper. If they hadn't been trying to be quiet, he may have actually yelled.

Arabella closed her mouth, taken back by the comment.

Henry sighed, running his hand through his hair and turning to face the door, his side to Arabella. His face was clearly struck in anger, but there was a bit of something else there. She kept quiet.

"I wouldn't have won if you lost," was all he mumbled before storming out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Arabella stood there a moment in shock, wondering what had just happened.

Did Pan finally accept the true love's fate?

* * *

**Whooo~**

**Pan's kissin' on Scorpion and Christine's face, thanks for the reviews y'all. **

**Reviews are what warms my heart to write more. 3**


	20. Modern Breakfast

**Shout out to hateme101 for her first review, Pan is sending grumble hugs~ Also, hateme, you've gotta keep in mind that _yes she has done plenty for them _but she's also made a few mistakes. And no matter what they always know she's gonna try and be pro-Peter. True love makes you crazy.  
**

**Christine gets more Pan kisses~ And yeah, girl. I know I'm good at cliff hangers. Something to keep 'em coming back.**

**More Pan kisses for scorpion~**

* * *

Present!

* * *

_"I wouldn't have won if you lost."_

His words kept ringing in her head over and over again. It told her two things.

1\. She was sure that Pan was finally admitting to caring for her.

2\. He still thought of everything as a game.

I mean, damn. "If you lost." Is that how we describe death these days?

Arabella sat up, thinking that it was about time she got out of bed and went about her day. It was well into two in the afternoon and no one had came to bother her. She was thankful for that. Last night was so hard for Arabella to sleep, and when she finally did she was glad that no one came to interrupt her.

Standing up with a stretch and a wince from the burn scars, she fixed her outfit and exited the guest bedroom of Regina's house.

Should she tell them about Pan being in Henry's body? Arabella felt that she needed a lot more answers before that happened. She had to know what was going on. Maybe Pan's plan didn't involve anyone getting hurt, but he had found a way to be immortal anyway?

Hope filled her chest at the idea of everyone winning.

It was all she ever wanted, for everyone to be okay.

For Peter to be okay.

But, alas, all magic came at a price and, unfortunately, that price usually meant someone losing. Often times it meant someone losing someone.

Shaking the thought from her head Arabella entered a large room with fancy counters, a big steel box and a lot more mysterious items that were all foreign to her. With an eyebrow raised she inspected the room, seeing a folded piece of paper on the counter.

"Arabella, something came up. Be back later. Pull the handles on the metal box for food. It's called a fridge. -Regina"

Face still in confusion, Arabella turned to face this 'fridge' and pulled on the long handles on the front. To her surprise, it opened much like a door. Sticking her head in, she inspected the food inside and her face was greeted with cold air. Shoving her head back in shock, eyes wide, she closed the door again.

"This is the weirdest magic I have ever seen," she said, shaking her head as she began opening cabinets.

She came across a particular box of cereal with a peculiar dwarf pirate named 'Captain Crunch' and ate the sugary pieces right out of the box. The front door opened with a large slam, causing Arabella to drop the cereal she was eating and jump back, raising her hand for a defense.

"Oh! You're here!" Emma said as she entered the room, her gun pointing forward.

"Were else would I be?!" Arabella yelled, mouth still full of cereal as she forced herself to swallow.

David walked in after Emma, putting his gun away as he inspected the cereal all over the floor, "Learning the wonders of modern breakfast?" He questioned with a silly grin.

Arabella straightened her back and lowered her hand, glaring at the nerve of these two, "You come into this house guns blazing, shocked I'm here and then joke around? I want to know what's going on!"

At her words David scratched the back of his head and turned toward Emma, who decided she should be the one to speak, "Pan's shadow killed someone."

"W-What? I thought you all destroyed him when we got to Storybrooke!" Arabella exclaimed.

"Yeah, we did too. But apparently we didn't, and somehow Pan is controlling him from inside of Pandora's box," Emma explained.

Arabella's gut churned, "And he's killed someone? Are you sure?"

"Positive, we watched the shadow come out and rip away her shadow," David said, "Regina took Henry down to her vault to keep him save."

Peter killed someone. Again. His evil days were not over and Arabella's hope that no one would get hurt and everyone would win died quickly. Once again she would have to chose between true love and good nature.

"Her vault?" Arabella questioned, placing a hand over her stomach as the knots this conversation were bringing dared to make her bring her breakfast back up.

"Yeah. It's where she keeps all her magical items. Ingredients, spells, potions... hearts," Emma said, trailing off and looking at David.

"Wait, like dangerous stuff?!" Arabella questioned, growing worried.

"Well. Yeah," David said, "Why?"

"That's not Henry! It's Peter!" she yelled, running to the other side of the table to meet the others, "We have to go! Regina is in danger!"

"What do you mean?" Emma asked as she ran over to Arabella and grabbed her by the shoulder, forcing her to look at her, "What the hell do you mean, not Henry?"

"Peter switched bodies with him, we don't have time to waste!" She explained, pulling herself from Emma's grasp as she continued to run.

"If you knew the whole time, why didn't you say anything?" David asked from behind the girls as he followed them.

"I found out last night!" Arabella said, pursing her lips, "I had to wait until he wasn't around before I told someone!" she lied, "We have a better advantage when he doesn't know that we know!"

"Well how are we going to get them back into their normal bodies?" Emma asked as she unlocked the door to her car, allowing the other two to get in.

"I don't know. We'll have to ask Rumple," Arabella said, the thought making her very angry.

Emma nodded as she dialed Gold's number and instructed him to meet them at the vault.

* * *

**Sorry this chapter is short.**

**I'm having a lot of tooth pains from a wisdom tooth growing in and by gosh.**

**I'm in a lot of pain and on a lot of drugs.**

**May be a few days before I update again.**

**Sorry guys~**


	21. New Neverland

**I have seriously contimplated blowing a hole through my head in these past few days.**

**I've had ****_organs removed _****that don't hurt as much as teeth problems.**

**Gosh.**

**But, shout-out to my coworker who dropped me off a whole lot of medicine that has helped numb me without making my brain foggy! She made this chapter possible for you!**

**(Guyyss. I can't help with the cliffhangers. There's always gonna be one until the story is done cause you're always gonna wanna read more. D:)**

* * *

_"Oh you said you'd never leave my side, you said  
"An hours just one moment, when I have your heart in mine."  
But, oh, you go so very far away.  
Just cut me off and leave me dying,  
Face the end without you trying."_

_-Exit Stage Left Pursued by a Bear by Anavae  
_

* * *

Present!

* * *

The group gathered about ten feet away from Regina's vault. Emma, Neal, Gold and Arabella all stood in a semi-circle, facing the doors as if they were waiting for the abominable snowman to burst out of it.

"Now you're sure that's Pan in Henry's body?" Rumple asked, turning his head to Arabella.

She swallowed the rock that was gathering in her throat and nodded, not being able to peel her eyes from the door.

"It makes sense, I know I felt something wrong with him," Emma said, "I told you it wasn't jealousy," She scolded, sending a dirty look Neal's way.

Neal shrugged and pulled a gun from his holster.

"Whoa what are you doing?!" Emma exclaimed, taking the gun from him, "You can't shoot Pan, that's Henry's body!"

"We need to separate them so that we can kill Peter," Neal said, returning his gun to his holster.

Arabella sent him a pained expression.

"David and Mary are on their way to the Blue Fairy's sanctuary, hoping that the girls will have an idea of where she kept the dark fairy's wand," Gold explained, looking at Emma, "Once we get that, we'll return the boys to their natural bodies."

"When are we going to get Henry out of Pandora's box?" Emma questioned.

"That's what I came here for. We need to get the bracelet from Arabella first," He said, holing his hand out.

Arabella looked at him, confused, "The one Peter used to take my magic away?"

"The very one," he said, giving his hand a little shake as if he were growing tired of waiting.

"I don't have it," she said, sounding worried, "Neal was the one who took it off of me."

Neal let a breath out as if he just remembered something and dug through the one-armed book bag he had on his body until he retrieved the bracelet and handed it to Gold.

"Why do you need this before we free Henry?" Emma asked, obviously annoyed that they're keeping her son in a tiny container.

"Because when we switch their bodies back, I wanted to make sure that Pan would be powerless," Rumple explained.

Arabella cringed, shutting her eyes tightly, "Are we going to kill him?"

"Bella," Neal started, putting a hand on her shoulder, "At this point I think you realize that we have to."

Bella nodded, turning her gaze back to the door of the vault as she furrowed her eyebrows together in frustration. She was trying to hold tears back, something she hates herself for having to do a lot lately.

"Well. Let's go get Pan," Emma said as she walked to the door, "Does he have magic?" She asked as she kept walking, turning her head toward Arabella.

"Not that I saw. I'm pretty sure he doesn't, else he would have done a lot more by now," Arabella answered as she followed behind the rest of the group.

"True," Emma sighed as she placed her hand on the handle of the door, "Ready?" She asked the group.

Everyone nodded. Emma took a deep breath and threw the door to the vault open, "Bella you stay up here, I don't want him seeing you yet!" Emma said as the others ran down the steps.

Bella nodded, stopping herself mid-stride and positioned herself by the door to the outside. After a moment she heard someone scream Regina's name, and then yell that the coast was clear.

Arabella moved toward the steps of the vault that lead to the underground and sighed in relief when she heard the mumbles of Regina's voice. Good, she was okay. That was one less person on the death list and, not matter how sour Regina was, she was thankful for it.

A small smile spread across Arabella's face as she reached the top step. But before she could take even another step she was being ripped away from he ground. She let out half a scream before the dark ghostly hand covered her mouth. Looking down she saw it had its arms around her waist as she was being raised from the ground.

Arabella struggled as hard as she could, but it was to no anvil. She should have known better anyway.

Pan's shadow was a lot more powerful then people gave it credit for.

Before the vault went out of sight she caught a glimpse of the group running from the inside, Neal screaming Arabella's name as they all tried to run after her. But it was no use, within seconds she was gone.

Her and the shadow flew for only about five minutes before they landed somewhere in the woods.

'Please get Henry out and switch them back soon,' she wished inside of her head, scared what Peter had planned. Why did he need her?

When the shadow landed he let her go and flew off as quick as they arrived. Stumbling at first, Arabella caught her balance and searched the area around them for any sign of life. There appeared to be a small well near her. Curious, she walked over to it.

There had to be a reason he specifically picked this spot, perhaps this was important?

When she neared it, Arabella placed her hands on the edges of the well. Immediately she felt a power surge through her body. Drawing her hands back to her chest, eyes wide in shock, she realized the significance of the well. This is where all of Storybrooke's magic was coming from. This place is what fueled the town so that everyone could use magic here, despite the fact that they were in a realm that wasn't supposed to have magic.

"Amazing, isn't it?" she heard Henry's voice say.

Whipping around, Arabella's mouth moved up and down as if she were looking for words, but at first couldn't find them, "Peter, what are you doing here? Why... why is this power important?"

"Did you really just ask that? Why power is important?" he smirked, shaking his head, "Oh, my dear, it appears I have much to teach you. Too bad I won't have the time to."

He took a few steps to her.

"What are you talking about? What's going on?" She asked, taking a step back until her bum pressed against the edge of the well.

"You see, I found a curse. A curse that is going to help me find a loophole in needed the heart of the truest believer, seeing that Regina has made sure I could never take it," he said angerly.

Another step toward her.

Arabella stepped sideways to the well and took another step back.

"But you see, like all magic, this curse has a price," he said, looking down to his feet for a moment before turning back up to look at her again.

Every time he looked at her he would seem as if he was at war with himself.

Every time he started another war with himself, he grew more angry.

Another step toward her.

"What's the price?" she asked, taking another step back, but her heel hit something on the ground. Turning around, she looked down to see a lifeless Felix laying on the ground.

Arabella let out a shriek and took a step backwards, which was now toward Peter.

"You see. You have to give the heart of the thing you love most," Peter said, grabbing her arm and whipping her around.

Tears welded in her eyes, "You don't even have magic in Henry's body," she said, her heart breaking at how evil Pan would stay forever.

Peter looked at her for a moment with his usual grin before cocking his head to the side and raising an eyebrow, "You see," He paused, reaching his hand into her chest and ripping out her heart very quickly, as if he were afraid he would change his mind, "I lied."

Arabella stumbled before falling to her knees, gripping her chest, "P-Peter, why?" she chocked, her tears falling, "If you were going to sacrifice me anyway, why not put my heart inside your chest?" she asked, looking up in his eyes to see the _very visible _inner fight he was having for himself, "Why not do this and go back to Neverland and leave these people alone? You can't use Henry anymore, so why-"

"BECAUSE IF I COULD HAVE USED HENRY, I COULD HAVE KEPT YOU!" He screamed down at her, his nostrils flaring, "They ruined EVERYTHING. They cost me **Neverland.** They cost me **my boys**. They cost me** you.** And now, I'm going to take **everything** from them. I'm going to make them suffer as much as **I WILL** for the rest of my life!"

"Peter it doesn't have to be like this," She said, shocked by his words as she finally found the strength to stand up and grab one of his hands.

It felt weird, seeing that he was still in Henry's body. Still, it felt necessary.

He didn't protest, but he did look down at their hands with his nostrils still flared, breathing deep in anger.

"Peter get your body back. But my heart in your chest. Go back to Neverland and start a new group of Lost Boys," Arabella smiled, trying to sway him, "You'll have all eternity to re-make what you've had."

"And all eternity to remember what I've lost," He said, the anger seeming to leave his face.

Arabella looked down at her feet, more tears falling. Why would he act this way now, in the end? She looked over to his other hand, the one that held her big red and beating heart. Returning the smile back to her face, she looked up at him.

"There's no situation I can imagine where you'll get the best of both worlds. But at least if you do it the way I've said, there will be no one coming after you."

Wrong choice of words.

"There's going to be no one coming after me anyway," He hissed, throwing her hand down as he brought her heart up to his vision before dropping his hand back down and looking at her, "Wither I do as you want me to, take your heart and make myself even more powerful then ever before, or fog their insignificant brains,** I'll **have the upper hand. **Peter Pan never fails.**"

Arabella hung her arms, her tears stopping as she slowly began to admit defeat to herself.

Every time she got close to him, he tore away from her.

Maybe she really would never change him.

"Peter, list-" But Arabella was cut off when Henry's body dropped to the ground and began to convulse uncontrollably, dropping her heart.

"PETER!" she screamed as the impact on her heart made her fall to her knees in pain. She crawled over to the convulsing boy and pulled his head into her arm, putting the other on his chest as she tried to soothe him.

What was going on?

Just then, the shaking spells stopped.

"Peter?" Arabella questioned, worry struck over her face.

But nothing happened.

Then, after a few moments of her frantic mind going crazy, the boys eyes opened up. For a moment he looked around, confused.

"A-Arabella?" he asked, putting his hand to his forehead as Arabella helped him sit up.

"Are you okay?" Arabella asked, her eyebrow raised in confusion. What the hell just happened?

"Yeah. We need to get back to my Mom," Henry said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the scroll, "We can't let Pan get this."

Arabella sighed in a partial relief, "You're right, we can't."

Henry looked over to the well and saw Felix, "Is he-"

"Dead," Arabella sighed, reaching over to the ground and picking up her heart.

Henry looked at it, shocked, "Did Peter try and take your heart?!"

Arabella nodded her head, the pain she felt in her emotions was very real. Without a moment to spare, she put her heart back into her chest and exhaled deeply once she felt complete again.

That's when it hit her.

If Henry was back, that means Pan was back. Meaning Pan was now in their control.

"Where are they keeping Peter?!" She asked frantically.

"At Gold's shop," Henry said, not realizing her worry and mistakened it for hope that Peter was contained, "We have to get back there. Mom said to find her as soon as I could."

"Come on Henry," Arabella said, standing up and extending her hand for him to take, "I'll get us there in a matter of seconds. We need to get there. Quickly."

They were going to kill Peter, and she had every intention of stopping them.

Because even after all he was doing, Arabella could see the good in him trying to break out and let go.

And she wasn't ready to give up on him just yet.

* * *

**Whoo~**

**Shit's getting pretty real now. What do you guys think? :)**

**Shoutout to FangedMe, Christine, HateMe and Scorpion! Pan kisses for all you lovely ladies, and thanks for the get-well wishes. **

**SORRY NOT SORRY FOR THIS EPIC CLIFFHANGER.**

**Butt, on the bright side, now that I have medicine I should be able to post tomorrow so you won't have to wait long. :)**


	22. Please Don't Hate Me

**So I'm thinking about starting a new story where a group of scientists (that will be the main characters) find a way to bring a few characters from OUAT into OUR world. Like, our world. Where we live.**

**Basically meaning Storybrooke would be a world within an 'Earth' world, pulled into OUR 'Earth' world.**

**Like Inception.**

**But cooler.**

**What do you think?**

* * *

_"Tomorrow I'm gonna leave here,  
I'm gonna let you go and walk away like every day I said I would.  
And tomorrow I'm gonna listen.  
To that voice of reason inside my head telling me that we're no good."_

_"We're like fire and gasoline.  
I'm no good for you, you're no good for me."_

_-Tomorrow by Chris Young_

* * *

**THE NEXT CHAPTER IS THE LAST. FOR GOOD THIS TIME.**

**Contemplating a sequel, we'll see.**

* * *

Present!

* * *

Henry walked over and grabbed Arabella's hand, the gesture reminding her of how just moments ago she was holding his hand but it was actually Peter.

Looking down at him with a weak smile a dark purple smoke swirled from around her feet and traveled around her and Henry, completely engulfing them.

_'Take me to Peter' _She told her magic from within her head.

When the smoke cleared they were standing in front of Gold's shop.

Regina, Emma, Neal, Snow, David and Belle were all standing around.

Arabella immediately took note that Rumple and Peter were not standing outside with them.

"Henry! Arabella!" Neal yelled, running over and wrapping an arm around each of them, "It's such a relief to see you in your normal body, bud," Neal smiled down at Henry before pulling away from the two.

The rest of the people took their turns hugging Henry.

"Thanks," Emma said awkwardly at Arabella as she looked over from her embrace on Henry.

Arabella nodded, looking down to her feet. She was devising a plan in her head of how she was going to save Peter. Furthermore, how she would convince him to not kill anyone.

"He killed Felix!" Henry exclaimed, wrapping his arms tighter around Emma.

"What? Why?" Regina asked, stepping closer to the two.

"He was trying to enact the curse!" Henry said, backing up from Emma and pulling the scroll from his pocket.

Emma took it gratefully and passed it to Regina.

"Then it's activated?" Emma asked, confused as she looked to Regina for answers.

Regina looked over to Arabella with a stone face, "It's impossible for it to be enacted, considering that she's still alive."

"That's a good thing then!"Belle said, piping in.

Arabella looked around to all the faces, choosing to stay quiet. She felt out of place within this group of people.

Besides, the more time she wasted with them, the more time she lost to helping Peter.

What if he was already dead?

"No. Because I'm going to make a safe bet and say that's why he tried to take you," Neal said.

"It's true! When I woke up she was putting her heart back into her chest!" Henry piped up.

She never hated the boy more in her life.

Arabella looked down to her feet.

Neal came over and put his hands on her shoulders, "Don't you see? Bella you'll never change him."

She refused to look him in the eye, "I almost convinced him not to!" she said, looking up with anger in her eyes, "I was breaking through!"

"And it wasn't enough," Regina spat.

Neal shot her a glare and looked back to Arabella, "And it didn't work, or we wouldn't be like this right now."

"It would have!" She argued, taking a step back to remove herself from Neal's grasp, "I just... I slipped. I said the wrong thing."

"And how long are you going to live watching your words?" Emma questioned, looking stern, "How many more times in the future would you or someone else say 'the wrong thing' to trigger him into these evil breakdowns? He's like a child with temper tantrums, and he can't be trusted!"

"True love or not, you deserve better than that," Neal said, looking at Arabella with pity.

"You shouldn't have to walk on eggshells for the one you love," Belle said, "But I understand the hope of changing someone," she said, taking a step toward Arabella and looking to the others before turning her gaze back, "But we're running out of time. An entire town is in danger and he's already killed someone that's closest to him. Sacrificing yourself to try and find another way to have everyone win was admirable. But it didn't work. Pan is always going to move to the next evil."

Arabella was growing angry, "You don't know Peter the way I do!"

"And** you** don't know him the way** we** do," Regina spat venomously.

Arabella growled, her anger rising to dangerous levels, "Don't play with me. I spent hundreds of years with Peter."

"Oh, so then you're aware he's my Grandfather?" Neal asked sarcastically.

Arabella's head drew back in shock, "What?" she questioned.

"Peter Pan is-" Neal's words were cut short when a red magic covered his and the entire groups body, freezing them in place.

All except for Arabella.

Confused and still in utter shock, Arabella whipped around to look for who did this.

"Ah, Baelfire," Peter sighed, back in his body as he strolled over to them, "You always knew how to out step your boundaries."

"Peter?" Arabella stammered, taking a step back as he got near her, "Is it true?"

He looked at her, face still stone angry as always, "It is."

"Rumpelstiltskin is your son?" She asked, completely flabbergasted, "He.. He killed my Father! WHY DID YOU NEVER TELL ME?"

Her anger was now flaring.

"Because you didn't need to know," He said, raising his arms to his waist, palms up with a 'What-are-you-going-to-do-about-it' gesture.

"Didn't," she exhaled, her face twisting in anger, "WHAT ABOUT DESERVING TO KNOW?!"

"And ruin everything?" He questioned, lowering his hands.

"Ruin** what**," she growled, growing impatient with him. This was a complete betrayal to her.

Something far worse than him slipping into the evil of his mind.

Peter stared at her, his anger still on his face the same way as when he walked up. He looked as though he was in contemplation to say what he wanted to, or needed to.

Truth, or lie?

"You've always known I had a plan for you," was all he simply said.

"I was under the impression it was to help you!" She yelled back.

"It was."

"And you hid everything from me?!"

"I had to."

Arabella flared, waving her hand and freezing him the same way she did back in skull rock, "WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING, PETER PAN?! WHO ARE YOU REALLY, AND WHAT ELSE ARE YOU HIDING."

Peter growled at himself being contained once more, "You're not doing this again,** let me go.**"

"Not until you answer my questions," she hissed, "Or you can just sit there until your time runs out."

Peter scoffed, a smirk going across his face, "You wouldn't- No," he stopped, his smirk going evil, "**You can't.**"

Arabella's feet began to smoke in purple fog, "Don't test me, Peter."

Peter's eyes widened a bit, this was the first time she had ever acted this way so strongly.

He must have really hurt her.

Well, yeah, he did.

He took the one thing from her that she wanted her whole life.

Her Father.

And now, she knew that he was lying.

"I was planning on you helping me," he said dryly, his expression dropping.

"Helping you with **what**?"

"I knew my powers would be weakened by the time I got the heart of the truest believer. You were supposed to be there to be on my side to make up for what I lacked," he said, emotionless.

"What you lacked? I was a pawn? How did you know to find me?" she asked, more questions rising.

"I saw you."

"Saw me where?"

"In the village where you lived with your Father," he said, "Now, I've answered your questions, let me go."

Arabella's head drew back once more in shock, "But.. I thought that your shadow saved me from drowning on a whim? I thought he was just passing through. Just... at the right place at the right time?"

"Arabella let me go."

"Did you plan this?"

"ARABELLA."

"DID YOU PLAN THIS?"

"YES," He screamed, anger flaring, "I DID. I PLANNED ALL OF IT."

Arabella's breath took in and held.

Her heart felt like it stopped.

_'I planned all of it.'_

_"Planned all of it.'_

'_**All of it.'**_

The words echoed in her head.

She started to lose grip on reality.

Darkness was consuming her.

Not the type that makes you pass out.

The type that makes your heart blacken as a consequence of what you're about to do.

At that moment, realization hit her.

All the pieces of this puzzle.

Pan didn't **save** her from her death.

He _staged_ it.

Peter took her from her Father.

Kept her in Neverland for hundreds of years.

Held the truth of his lineage.

Told her only exactly what he wanted her to know.

What he needed her to hear.

Just to draw her in to his plan.

To draw her into **him.**

At that moment, Arabella doubted true love more than anything in the entire world.

Face twisting, the purple smoke fogging around her, Arabella's face reached an expression no one would have ever thought possible of such a hopeful girl.

Her face went dark.

She was fueled with anger, and she knew what she wanted to do.

Her heart was all that was holding her back.

With a deep breath and a skull penetrating scowl, Arabella reached her hand into her chest and removed her heart, all of her love for Peter with it.

"I'm going to kill you, Peter Pan."

* * *

**Pan kissed for Scorpion, Christine and HateMe.**


	23. Perhaps Neither does Love

**Okay so I love you guys a lot. I'm also wide awake at fucking 5 in the morning with tooth pains. So I wrote the final chapter.**

**I was gonna wait till tomorrow to post it anyway.**

**But screw it, here~**

* * *

"I would have kept you, forever but we had to sever.  
It ended for both of us, faster than a-  
Kill off this thinking, it's starting to sink in.  
I'm losing control now, and without you I can finally see!"

"Your promises, they look like lies  
Your honesty, like a back that hides a knife."

-Attack by 30 Seconds to Mars

* * *

**Past!  
**

* * *

**Arabella, ten years old, sat on the edge of the cliff that held Neverland's magical water. Her head was hung, staring at her feet that dangled above the world. Tears were streaming down her face. She wanted nothing more than to be back home with her Father.  
**

**She had been in Neverland for two days now. Peter and the Lost Boys were so nice and so welcoming to her.**

**Being so young innocent, she would never realize it was all because Peter had asked them to.  
**

_**Made them.**_

**She sighed as the tears kept coming, trying to control her breathing.  
**

**"Arabella?" she heard Peter's voice ask as he took a spot beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "What's wrong?"**

**Peter was still in his "I'm a good guy" act to lure her into the idea that Neverland was her new home.**

**For a while she stayed silent. Accepting Peter's embrace but breaking down further into her cries.**

**When her breakdown was over she wiped her eyes and then her nose, sniffing and looking back down to the tree tops below her feet.**

**"He called me BellaDonna," she said pausing as she took another breath and waited a moment to continue, "I miss my Papa."**

**"Neverland needs you," Peter said, rubbing her back, "Would you leave us?"**

**Arabella looked down to her feet. Of course she would leave. But she didn't want to say that out loud.  
**

**"Why do you need me?" She asked, looking up to him.**

**Peter, being fresh with this drawing to her, was taken aback.**

**"Because I need you," He said simply, looking down at her with an expression Arabella couldn't explain.**

**But something inside of Arabella's heart had told her that his answer was enough. Something told her he was enough.**

**Call it true love.**

**Unable to blossom in the age gap, but it was still very much a drawing of needing to stay together.**

**"You can call me that," she said.**

**"Call you what?" he asked.**

**"What my Father did. It'll make me feel more at home," she said, giving a weak smile as she looked up at him.**

**"Okay, BellaDonna," Peter said, smiling back at her and pulling her into a small embrace.**

**When she wasn't able to see his face anymore his smile turned into a wicked grin, his plan was working.**

**She was getting hooked.**

**He would have her all to himself.**

**All to Neverland.**

**This was the first time Peter Pan had ever used the nickname BellaDonna without trying to hurt her.**

**All other times were an attack.**

**A way to upset her, to make her feel the pain of losing her Father.**

**The first time ever that he had said it with intentions of making her smile.**

**But surely not the last time he would.**

* * *

_"I have never seen you act that way before,  
Totally exposed.  
As you throw away the love that we made,  
And nothing's going to change that hopeless feeling,  
I get when you say you'll understand,_

_And I know you can't.  
I want to believe you,  
**But I can't feel a thing**"_

_-Dyed in the Wool by Circa Survive_

* * *

Present!

* * *

"Oh I don't think so, Dearie," Arabella heard Rumple's voice say as he exited the shop behind Peter.

Before she had time to react, he waved a hand and froze her.

Now, Arabella may be strong, but understand that even the strongest of people can be caught in a trap when caught off guard.

Now Peter had the group frozen, Arabella had Peter frozen and Rumple had her frozen.

Everyone was in a web.

A very complicated web.

But, to make matters worse, Arabella was unable to move _or speak._

"You see, as much as you have every reason to," Rumple started as he walked between her and Peter, "I have more of a right to this than you do."

_'Understandable,'_ she thought, her anger still strong, but when she had been frozen her magic fog had disappeared. Her heart was still in her hand.

"Besides, there's more questions I can answer that Peter can't," He said, turning to look at her with a "I-know-it-all" look as he flicked his hand, "Well. I guess it'd be more along the lines of **helping you realize something."**

"Quite, Rumple," Peter growled.

If she could move, she'd show her confusion.

But alas she remained still as he continued to talk.

"You see, I killed your Father," Rumple said, "But you see, Peter was the reason he wanted to die."

"SILENCE," Peter yelled.

"Do you remember when I said when he lost you, he had lost all his reason for living?"

"RUMPLE," Peter continued to protest, loudly and furiously.

_"No..."_ she thought.

"Yes," he said, as if he could hear her thoughts, "Peter took you from him and never told him that you were still alive. We all thought you were dead. And thus, he tricked me into stealing the dagger and taking the powers for myself."

Arabella's throat moved under the spell as she swallowed hard.

"He did a lot more planning with you than you thought he did."

Peter's face stayed frozen in anger, but he had nothing to say.

Arabella stared at him, as if she was able to move anything anyway. A tear fell down her face.

Peter Pan was the one who single-handedly ruined her entire life. Even without her heart she was able to feel the pain of this utter betrayal.

Why would fate do this to her?

Curse her to love someone who was so dark?

Well, being born from the dark magic of the Dark One, it made sense. Perhaps the world had intentions for her to be just as evil as he.

Perhaps they planned for her to fall with him.

At the moment she wanted nothing more than to curl up and die.

She didn't even care about her vengeance from Peter.

She just didn't want to feel anymore.

"You see, Papa," Rumple said sarcastically as he turned his back to Arabella and faced his Father head on, "Lies have speed, but truth has endurance. Do you remember when I said I sent my shadow away to hide something?" he asked, raising his hand to the sky.

In a mere moment, Rumple's shadow appeared and handed him the dagger.

"Let's end this," he said, walking over to Peter.

"Rumple, don't," Peter said, fear spreading across his face as he tried to move away. But, alas, Arabella's magic was too strong, "Bella.." He paused, looking over to her, guilt spread across his face as if he just realized the full extent of everything he had done, "Bella let me go!"

Another tear slid down her face.

She tried to scream to him that she couldn't, she can't even move. She tried to scream that even if she could, she more than likely wouldn't.

_"I love you, Peter,"_ she thought, _"In the most hateful way I could ever imagine."_

Rumple pulled himself into an embrace with his dear old Dad, drawing the dagger back and stabbing it into his back.

As the dagger drew into Peter's flesh, Arabella felt as if her heart snapped into a thousand pieces. When the smoke clouded over them she felt as though she had lost Peter completely and forever. She thought him to be dead and it _killed_ her more than she honestly thought it would. She felt her magic leaving Peter's body, meaning that she was no longer freezing him in place.

Even after everything.

Even with her heart not being inside of her chest.

When she wasn't even supposed to feel.

**She still felt the love for him as if it were apart of her very soul.**

And she mourned.

She mourned eternally for the love of her life. Never did she think he would actually die, no matter how bad she may have wanted it to happen. Her emotions conflicted against each other as her face turned into a fountain of waterworks, pouring on to the asphalt below her.

But when the smoke cleared Rumple was left embracing a much older man who looked as though he was on his death bed.

"Rumple," the older man weakly said, just loud enough for Arabella to hear, "Rumple it's not to late, take the dagger out. We can start over, we can have the life we always anted. A fresh start," he smiled, a tear falling down his face as he turned his head to look at Rumple, "Take out the dagger," He repeated, "I can go back to my form. Me, you and Arabella can go to Neverland and start over. We can have a happy ending."

(Okay at this note, I don't want you to imagine the actor that played Malcolm, Peter's older form. Because I have full faith in the idea that Robbie Kay is going to age **a lot** better than that man.)

Peter? Was that Peter?

"Oh, Papa," Rumple said, sarcasm lining his voice, "You expect me to allow a twenty year old woman be my step-mother? Besides, we're villains, and villains **_don't get_ happy endings**."

That was Peter! W-Why did he look so.. so old? Regardless, he was still alive and Arabella began to struggle against Rumple's magic to break free. Peter said he could return to his form. She could still save him to return to his former self.

The revelation she saw in Peter's eyes at the moment of his potential death was enough to show her he was still worth fighting for.

Perhaps she would never forgive him, but she wasn't about to live without him.

But he sure as hell was going to explain himself, and the reason why his true form appears to be that of an older man.

Arabella began to move ever so slightly as Rumple turned his head toward the group frozen before them.

"Bae. You mean the world to me. I regretted letting you go the moment I did, and I spent my life looking for you ever sense. I made this curse to find you, and I'm sorry for everything I've ever done. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

"Rumple.." Peter groaned, sounding pained.

Arabella twitched her hand, the concentration of moving starting to show in her face ever so slightly.

"Belle," Rumple said, smiling, "You made me strong. Our love made me strong, and you made me a better man. I love you, Belle. But doing this costs a price. A price I'm finally willing to pay."

Rumple's hand gripped the dagger tighter as he began to twist the blade.

**"NOOOOOOO,"** Arabella screamed, the strength in her emotions bursting Rumple's magic from her body. The force of the magic leaving her body shot a small force out of her, causing Rumple to stumble and release the dagger, stepping to the side to avoid falling. Arabella clutched her heart tight in her hands, but not tight enough to hurt herself.

Peter fell to his knees, slowly dying as the blade was turned just enough to cause a gold light seeping from the wound to slowly make him disintegrate into thin air.

"Peter!" Arabella yelled, running forward, her warm fountain of tears still falling from her face.

Rumple swiped his hand, causing her to fly backwards. Arabella quickly shoved her heart into her chest, mid-air, to prevent falling on it and risk and accidental death.

Rumple jumped up, looking angry as she jumped back to her feet.

"What are you doing?!" He growled.

Arabella swiped her hand, her emotions still fueling her as she sent Rumple flying down the street. He hit the ground hard and seemed to have been knocked unconscious.

Taking the time she had, Arabella ran over and kneeled in front of Peter, bringing her hands up as if to touch him, but she was so scared of hurting him.

His frame was beginning to be transparent.

"Peter," she sobbed, "Peter what do I do?"

Peter, with a smile forming across his face, reached up and put a hand on her face to cup half of it.

She leaned into his touch, taking in the features of the older Peter. He was still gorgeous, his green eyes still capable of penetrating her very soul. It felt weird to love such an older looking man, but she didn't care. It was still Peter.

It was still her true love.

"Arabella," He croaked, coughing up a bit of blood as more of his frame began to disappear, "Arabella I'm sorry I am such an ass," he said, almost laughing.

Arabella chocked on her own saliva as she coughed and leaned her head down on his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him as she sobbed into him, careful not to touch the dagger dug into his back. She didn't want to do anything to quicken the pace of his death.

"I'm sorry," he said, still sounding pained, "I'm sorry I never told you."

"T-Told me what?" she sobbed, pulling away but keeping her arms around him as she looked back into his eyes.

Half of her mind told her that he was apologizing for not telling her how he controlled her entire life.

"Telling you that... That I love you," he said, smiling as he leaned in and placed a kiss on the top of her forehead, "I.. I ran from it. I thought you were a weakness, and I convinced myself of it."

"I love you too, Peter," she chocked, her sobs becoming stronger.

"I don't have a lot of time," he said, pulling her into a tight embrace.

Every thought of how to save him rang through her head, and she kept coming up with nothing.

Or, perhaps there was something.

Reaching her hand into her chest, Arabella removed her heart for one last time.

"Put it back, Arabella. You deserve life more than I do," Peter said, sounding worried as he tried to struggle from her. But his weakness only caused him to fall over on his side, "Please," he begged.

Arabella leaned down further with her upper half of her body, as she was still on her knees, "Peter you would get your power back, and mine. It would save your life."

"I'm aware, but you deserve it more," He said.

His face was peeling away into small fragments, floating away into the air. He looked like a picture someone was trying to erase bit by bit.

"Perhaps we both do," she said, another tear falling down her face as she smiled, "Perhaps love never fails," she said, repeating herself from the moment back in skull rock.

Peter looked up at her in wonder and fear as Arabella gripped her heart. The pain from her squeeze caused her face to scrunch up in pain. She squeezed harder and twisted it. One hand going forward, the other going back.

Her heart snapped, causing her to lose her breath and drop it.

Arabella's hands hit the pavement as she tried to regain herself, Peter desperately trying to reach over to her.

"Bella!" he yelled, scared that he would watch her die before he had a chance to die himself.

Arabella smiled as she looked down to see her heart separated in two, proud of herself that her plan had worked.

Even if it hadn't, she wouldn't have wanted to live without him anyway.

Quickly, as Peter was almost nothing but air, she picked up half of her heart and slammed it into his chest.

A wave of gold light burst through the area, throwing her backwards. Her head hit a fire hydrant on the other side of the road she was thrown to. She never lost consciousness, but her vision waved into blurred colors.

The next thing she felt was a warmth in her chest, feeling her heart be apart of her once more, and strong arms pick her up. Looking up, she tried to focus on the face.

"Relax, BellaDonna, I've got you," the voice mused.

Arabella leaned her head into the chest of the one holding her, the heartbeat sounding all to familiar. It made her comfortable as she rested one of her hands on the chest, as if to try and feel closer to it.

She felt wind on her face and through her hair.

Flying?

Her vision cleared and she saw Peter. The young Peter, the one she fell in love with.

That fucking asshole that she loved more than her very life.

Back to his normal, young self.

"Where are we going," she questioned, whispering into his chest.

"Back to Neverland," he said, "To spend the rest of our eternity together."

Arabella smiled and curled into him, reaching her arms up to go around his neck as she planted a kiss onto his cheek. Peter turned his head to her, a smile going across his as he planted one on her lips.

Their eternity together.

Yeah.

She liked the sound of that.

* * *

**Fin.**

* * *

**I HAVE DECIDED THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL.**

**BECAUSE I TOOK A SHOWER BEFORE I WROTE THIS AND CAME UP WITH AN AWESOME IDEA.**

**STAY TUNED.**

**Favorite me as an author if you'd like to be updated when I make it.**

**Or keep an eye on the Peter Pan listings.**

**Haven't decided what I'm going to name it, but I'll put the name of this story in the description so you know where to go~**

* * *

_I end this story of true love and want to tell you to never accept anything less than what you deserve._

_Not what you THINK you deserve._

_Because you all deserve the best, regardless of your past._

_I would like to make note that no one deserves to be manipulated or controlled. _

_To my fellow Peter Pan lovers, you deserve much better than Once Upon a Time's Peter Pan._

_You deserve a woman/man of good will, good spirit and kind nature to treat you like the Queen/King you are._

_Perfection in love doesn't mean it won't have it's flaws._

_It's taking those flaws and helping each other become better people._

_It's a team effort, and nothing less._

_So go forth and love, strive for happiness and above all;_

_Don't accept any bullshit._

_Love,_

_Marty Bum_


End file.
